Ashish Ranjan
Delhi liquor policy case: Former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia filed a parole petition with the Rouse Avenue Court in a money laundering case related to the excise policy on Tuesday; the court remanded him to judicial custody until April 5 on Wednesday.
Sisodia was brought before Special Judge MK Nagpal of the Rouse Avenue Courts upon the expiration of his Enforcement Directorate detention. (ED).Manish Sisodia submitted an application during the hearing in which he expressed a desire to peruse more books in jail. In response, the court stated that Sisodia will receive the desired volumes.
Tuesday, Sisodia’s attorneys argued that no incriminating evidence was uncovered during CBI-led searches. Senior Counsels Dayan Krishnan and Mohit Mathur argued on behalf of Manish Sisodia that he cooperated with the investigation and that none of the CBI’s inquiries uncovered anything that would necessitate his continued detention.
However, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) opposed his parole application, stating that while Manish Sisodia may not pose a flight risk, he does pose a risk of evidence destruction. The Special Public Prosecutor for the CBI, DP Singh, stated, “A person is a saint until his irregularities and illegalities are discovered.”
The central agency detained Sisodia on March 9 at the Tihar jail, where he was lodged in relation to the CBI’s investigation into the excise policy case.According to the ED, Manish Sisodia was involved in the “extensive destruction of digital evidence to impede investigation” in the Delhi liquor policy case and had changed and destroyed 14 phones.
The agency also alleges that Sisodia withheld information that was “exclusively known to him” and “extremely pertinent to the investigation.”
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Previously, the central agency informed the court that Sisodia was “involved in the activity associated with the acquisition, possession, and use of criminal proceeds” and was therefore “guilty of the crime of money laundering.”
