New Delhi: Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court on Monday extended the judicial custody of AAP leader and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia till May 23 in connection with the ongoing probe by the Enforcement Directorate in the Excise Policy case.
The central agency had submitted before the court on Saturday that the activities of present accused Sisodia had led to proceeds of crime worth Rs 622 crore in a case related to excise policy.
The court also listed the supplementary chargesheet filed against the AAP leader for consideration on May 10. The court also asked the ED to file a soft copy of the supplementary chargesheet on CD/DVD/pen drive by May 8. The ED had earlier filed a petition. For the first time, a 2,000-page charge sheet against the jailed former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister.
Earlier, Delhi’s ruling AAP claimed that the BJP should apologize for defaming Manish Sisodia as the ED and CBI have not found any evidence of corruption.
Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court has extended Manish Sisodia’s judicial custody till May 23 in the ED case in the Excise Policy matter. May 8, 2023
The AAP claimed that the court, in its order, said that “there is no evidence” to prove or corroborate the alleged corruption. Delhi Minister and AAP leader Atishi on Sunday said that BJP leaders should hold a press conference and apologize to the nation for lying to defame Manish Sisodia and alleged that “people are under pressure to make false statements”. was put”.
Addressing a press conference, Atishi said, “There were two major allegations. First: Rs 100 crore bribe was received. Second: This amount was spent for the Goa elections. But the Rouse Avenue court order, through which Two people were granted bail, should be cancelled.” Read properly, because it is clear that ED and CBI do not have any evidence of corruption even of a single rupee. The judge repeatedly said in the 86-page order that there is no evidence.
The Delhi minister claimed that the Rouse Avenue court has said in the order that there is no “specific evidence” to show corruption. “The first allegation is that Rs 100 crore was given to AAP through bribery under corruption. Along with the BJP, the ED and the CBI were alleging that the bribe givers included businessman Gautam Malhotra,” he said.
Atishi, citing the court’s order, said, “There is no specific evidence showing bribe or any such cash evidence of payment of bribe. The only evidence produced are some vague statements of witnesses, and based on these statements It cannot be inferred that the cash payment was given as a bribe.”
She further alleged that the ED had earlier mentioned Rs 100 crore, but later in the chargesheet stated the amount as Rs 30 crore. “ED’s story started with Rs 100 crore, but then itself came down to Rs 30 crore, as the agency has mentioned Rs 30 crore in its charge sheet. It was also alleged that a person named Rajesh Joshi 30 crore was taken as bribe. The court has also said that no independent evidence has been collected by the agency to prove or corroborate this fact.’
The AAP leader also alleged that the ED has mentioned only “Rs 19 lakh” being spent by the party during the Goa elections. Atishi said, “The second allegation was that the bribe money was used for the Goa elections. But, after conducting raids for six months, the court said that only Rs 19 lakh was spent through cash and The rest was spent through cheques.”
Criticizing the BJP, Atishi demanded that the party leader apologize for ‘defaming’ the former deputy chief minister. He said, “Now, we expect BJP leaders to hold a press conference and apologize to the country for defaming Manish Sisodia. People are being pressurized to give statements. We saw that three people Taking back his statement and being pressurized. It was.” It also alleged that 14 phones were broken, but all those phones are working. Then, the name of Sanjay Singh was also brought up, but later the ED accepted its mistake.
Atishi also said that the party will appeal for Manish Sisodia’s bail. Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is in jail for alleged irregularities in the Excise case.
Sisodia arrested in liquor scam case
Sisodia was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in an ongoing probe into a case related to alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-cancelled excise policy in Delhi.
The CBI had arrested Sisodia on February 26 this year. He was later arrested by the ED on March 9 after hours of questioning at Tihar Jail. Later in April, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was also summoned by the ED for questioning in the matter.
The ED and CBI had alleged that irregularities were committed while revising the excise policy, giving undue benefits to license holders, waiving or reducing license fee and extending L-1 licenses without the approval of the competent authority. The probe agencies said the beneficiaries gave “illegal” benefits to the accused officials and made wrong entries in their ledgers.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on May 4 filed a supplementary charge sheet against former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the Delhi Excise Policy case. The supplementary charge contains more than 2100 pages. The operational part consists of 271 pages. The charge has been filed within the prescribed period of 60 days. CBI has already filed a charge sheet in this case.