Delhi Rouse Avenue Court on Monday granted a three-day interim bail to AAP leader Manish Sisodia to attend his niece’s wedding. The Aam Aadmi Party leader and former Deputy Chief MInister of Delhi was arrested in connection to the alleged excise policy scam.
Special Judge MK Nagpal granted the interim relief to Manish Sisodia from February 13-15 in the corruption and money laundering cases being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) respectively.
Manish Sisodia had sought bail for five days arguing that he will have to perform certain rituals as the family’s only male member and that his niece was very close to him. When the special judge asked Senior Advocate Mohit Mathur, representing the leader, whether it was alright to send security personnel with him to the function, the latter responded that he didn’t want to humiliate the family with cops hovering around.
While the CBI strongly opposed the bail plea mentioning that Manish Sisodia was highly influential and could tamper with evidence, the Enforcement Directorate took issue with the time period of five days stating that one day was enough to attend the wedding.
In February last year, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested the former Deputy Chief Minister over alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22. After his arrest by the CBI, Manish Sisodia was detained by the Enforcement Directorate on March 9 from Tihar jail in connection to the money laundering case.
Last week, the same judge bench allowed Manish Sisodia to visit his ailing wife once a week while in custody in both the cases registered against him in the matter pertaining to the Excise policy 2021-22. Senior Advocate Mohit Mathur contended that the court has granted Manish Sisodia permission to visit his wife, and that there has been no complaints against him for flouting any condition imposed by the court.
The AAP leader had lodged an application on January 27 in both cases lodged by the CBI and ED, seeking custody parole twice a week to visit his wife, who has been suffering from multiple sclerosis for over 20 years. The counsel appearing for the AAP leader said that his wife’s condition is very poor and that she requires assistance even to walk, impacting her mental health.