New Delhi: In the Delhi excise policy case, the Supreme Court postponed the bail hearing of former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to August 5, as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) requested additional time to respond to the money laundering allegations.
The court has allowed the ED until Thursday, August 1, to file its response. In the meantime, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has informed the court that it has submitted its reply, which the Supreme Court has directed to be recorded.
Arguing for bail, Sisodia stated that he had been detained for 16 months without any progress in his trial since October of the previous year. Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan presided over the hearing of Sisodia’s petition.
On July 16, the apex court consented to consider the pleas and requested responses from both the CBI and the ED.
Sisodia was apprehended by the CBI on February 26, 2023, over alleged discrepancies in the creation and execution of the now-defunct Delhi excise policy for 2021-22. Following a CBI FIR, the ED detained him on March 9 of the previous year in a related money laundering case. He stepped down from his position in the Delhi cabinet on February 28 of the same year.
Sisodia’s application mentioned that on June 4, the legal representative for the investigating agencies assured the Supreme Court that the charge sheet and the prosecution complaint for the primary excise policy case and the associated money laundering case would be filed by July 3. The prosecution complaint is equivalent to a charge sheet for the ED.
Previously, on June 4, the Supreme Court declined to consider Sisodia’s bail requests for both cases. The court stated that Sisodia could renew his bail applications after the ED and the CBI submit the final prosecution complaint and the charge sheet for these cases.
The Supreme Court also noted that any such bail request would be evaluated based on its own merits, as previously determined by the court in its order dated October 30, 2023.
