High Court rejects Sisodia’s bail plea in liquor excise policy case

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed the bail plea of Manish Sisodia, former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, in a CBI case related to alleged corruption in the implementation of the liquor excise policy in the national capital.

The bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma denied bail to Sisodia and said that the applicant (Sisodia) being a powerful person, there is the possibility of him influencing the witnesses.

During arguments, the CBI had opposed the bail plea moved by Manish Sisodia and stated, “The applicant (Sisodia) enjoys close nexus with the executive, offices and bureaucrats and his influence and clout is evident. His party colleagues holding high ranks continue to make factually wrong claims in order to influence the investigation and also claiming the applicant to be a victim of a political vendetta.”

A perusal of the said statements by this political leader (s) during the press conferences would reveal how the entire efforts of not only the Applicant but his party colleagues as a whole are to shield the accused, stated CBI in its reply opposing bail plea of Sisodia, CBI said..

Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26, 2023, and is presently in Judicial custody. His bail plea was on March 31, 2023, by the trial Court in the case.

According to the CBI, Sisodia had played the most important and vital role in the criminal conspiracy and he had been deeply involved in the formulation as well as the implementation of the said policy to ensure the achievement of the objectives of the said conspiracy.

“The payment of advance kickbacks of around Rs. 90-100 crores was meant for him and his other colleagues in the GNCTD and Rs. 20-30 crores out of the above are found to have been routed through the co-accused Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally and approver Dinesh Arora and in turn, certain provisions of the excise policy were permitted to be tweaked and manipulated by the applicant to protect and preserve the interests of South liquor lobby and to ensure repayment of the kickbacks to the said lobby,” stated CBI.