Delhi Excise Policy Case: Supreme Court reserves verdict on Manish Sisodia’s Bail Plea
The Supreme Court on Tuesday concluded hearing arguments in bail plea moved by former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and reserved verdict. Sisodia has been in jail for over 17 months in the Delhi Liquor Policy case.
A bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice KV Viswanathan heard the matter. Sisodia moved to the Supreme Court again after the Delhi High Court rejected his bail pleas in ED and CBI cases.
On Monday, Senior Advocate Abhishek M Singhvi appearing for Sisodia argued that in Oct 2023, the Supreme Court which rejected bail to Sisodia had expressed concern over Sisodia’s long incarceration. And since then, the period of 6-8 months has expired, but the trial has not even started.
Adv Singhvi further argued that the delay in trial should be read along with the question of bail under Section 45 PMLA. “When trial is not proceeding for reasons not attributable to accused, the court, unless there are good reasons, may well be guided to exercise the power to grant bail…” he said.
Singhvi further accused ED of concealing documents and said that the probe agency has filed 25000 pages of documents and has over 162 witnesses.
ED, however, opposed bail for Sisodia and said that the delay in trial is attributable to Sisodia as he kept filing application in court. However, the top court remarked that none of those could be called frivolous as court allowed them.
Justice Viswanathan asked ED to realistically tell court, “When do you see the end of the tunnel considering there are 493 witnesses?”
ASG SV Raju appearing for ED said that speedy trial can’t be stuck in a straight jacket formula. “How can delay be attributed to me? I never said don’t frame charges, or don’t proceed because further investigation is pending. Rather, I filed an application for expediting trial.”
