A Delhi court on Friday allowed former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to meet his wife, Seema Sisodia, for six hours on Saturday, between 10 am to 4 pm.
Special judge M.K. Nagpal of Rouse Avenue Courts granted permission to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader on his petition moved on Thursday, seeking permission to meet his wife, suffering from an autoimmune disorder and multiple sclerosis, for a period of five days
The Central Bureau of Investigation had arrested the former Delhi Cabinet Minister on February 26 for his alleged involvement in the Delhi Excise Policy scam case, after interrogating him for more than eight hours.
He was named as an accused in the FIR. Subsequently, he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 9 after questioning inside the Tihar jail. He has since remained behind the bars.
Both the CBI and the ED have filed cases against him under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), respectively.
CBI had opposed Sisodia’s bail on the grounds that it would scuttle the investigation and that there has been a ‘constant’ practice of destruction of evidence by him.
CBI alleged that Sisodia gave evasive replies during the probe and did not cooperate with the investigation, despite being confronted with evidence. The agency filed a charge sheet in the matter on November 25, 2022.
As per the FIR lodged by CBI, the former Delhi Cabinet Minister and others were instrumental in ‘recommending’ and ‘taking’ decisions regarding the Excise policy 2021-22 ‘without approval’ of the competent authority with an intention to ‘extend’ undue favours to the licensee post tender.
The court had earlier observed that Sisodia was instrumental at every stage in formulation and implementation of the Excise policy and that his arrest in the money laundering case was fully justified.
ED had alleged that the Excise Policy 2021-22 was implemented as part of a conspiracy to give wholesale business profit of 12 percent to certain private companies. It said that such a stipulation was not mentioned in the minutes of meetings of the Group of Ministers (GoM).
The national agency further submitted that the conspiracy was coordinated by businessman Vijay Nair and other individuals, in connivance with people from the Southern part of the country, to give extraordinary profit margin to wholesalers.
As per ED, Nair was acting on behalf of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Sisodia.
It also accused Sisodia of destroying the evidence, alleging that the AAP leader destroyed 14 phones out of which only two were recovered. It was also submitted that the former Delhi Minister used sim cards and phones, which were purchased in the name of other individuals.