Excise policy case : SC grants bail to Manish Sisodia in both ED and CBI cases

The Supreme Court on Friday (August 9, 2024) granted bail to former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in cases registered against him by the ED and CBI in connection with the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy. A Bench comprising Justices B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan acknowledged Mr. Sisodia’s right to a speedy trial, noting his 17-month-long incarceration and the ongoing delay in the commencement of the trial. Accordingly, the judges ordered the senior AAP leader’s release on payment of ₹10 lakh in bail bonds. As part of the bail conditions, he must surrender his passport, report to the police station every Monday, and avoid tampering with evidence or influencing witnesses. The court also declined the ED’s oral request to restrict Mr. Sisoida from visiting the Delhi Secretariat or the Chief Minister’s office as was done in the case of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, when he was granted interim bail to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. While the CBI arrested Mr. Sisodia under the Prevention of Corruption Act on February 26 last year, the ED arrested him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on March 9 of the same year. The Delhi High Court had rejected Mr. Sisodia’s bail application on May 30. A Vacation Bench of the apex court of Justices Aravind Kumar and Sandeep Mehta had also refused bail to the former Deputy CM on June 4. However, the Bench gave the AAP leader the liberty to “revive” his plea for bail, afresh, once the central agencies have filed the final charge sheet/prosecution complaint, respectively, in the case. The court had on June 4 also recorded an undertaking from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for both the CBI and the ED, that the final charge-sheet/prosecution complaint, signaling the completion of investigation in the excise policy case, would be filed in the trial court on or before July 3, 2024.