The Supreme Court today granted bail to businessman Amandeep Dhall in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case related to the alleged irregularities in the framing of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy of 2021-22.
A Bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan clarified that it has not commented on the merits of the case, and that the bail is contingent on terms set by the trial court and Dhall’s cooperation during trial.
The Supreme Court granted bail after Senior Advocate Siddhartha Dave appeared for Dhall and contended that he had been in jail for 557 days. Amandeep Dhall had already got bail from the Delhi High Court in the money laundering case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) related to the Delhi Excise Policy, by an order passed on September 17.
With this top court order, all the accused in the Delhi Excise Policy case have now been given bail. The investigation agency had arrested Dhall on April 18, 2023. Amandeep Dhall was the Managing Director of Brindco Sales Private Limited, a wholesale L-1 licensee. Allegedly, Dhall was involved in the formulation of Delhi liquor policy from the very beginning and was in close contact with co-accused Vijay Nair.
He was arranging meetings between Nair and various officials and representatives of different liquor manufacturers at the stage of the formulation of the excise policy. Earlier on June 9, 2023, the trial court dismissed Dhall’s bail plea. Following, the Delhi High Court then denied bail to him on June 4 prompting this appeal before the apex court.
The Delhi High Court had earlier noted that there were serious allegations against him, including that Dhall and his father had paid a bribe of Rs 5 crore to an official of the ED to keep their names off the case.
Recently, the top court had granted bail to Aam Aadmi party leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia in connection with the same case. Allowing Sisodia’s plea, the apex court had also taken critical note that the High Courts and trial courts appeared to be playing it safe when they routinely denied bail in criminal cases instead of granting bail as the norm.