‘Manish Sisodia architect of criminal conspiracy’: Court refuses AAP leader bail in excise policy case

Sisodia’s lawyers had asked the court to consider his wife’s medical condition, submitting that she suffered from multiple sclerosis and that there was no one to look after her. The court, however, looked into the medical documents to state that they “cannot be considered to be severe or serious enough” to release Sisodia on bail and the same also “cannot be taken to mean that she cannot take care of herself or has to be necessarily taken care of by the applicant only”.

The court said the payment of advance kickbacks of around Rs 90-100 crore was “meant for him and his other colleagues” in the Delhi government. It noted that of this kickback amount, Rs 20-30 crore is found to have been routed through various accused persons, and “in turn, certain provisions of the excise policy were permitted to be tweaked and manipulated by the applicant to protect and preserve the interests of South liquor lobby and to ensure repayment of the kickbacks to the said lobby”.

The court said that Sisodia, through AAP communication chief Vijay Nair, “was in contact with the South lobby and formulation of a favourable policy for them was being ensured at every cost… and a cartel was permitted to be formed to achieve monopoly in sale of certain liquor brands… against the very objectives of the policy. Thus, as per allegations made by the prosecution and evidence collected in support, the applicant can prima facie be held to be architect of the said criminal conspiracy.”

According to investigators, the South Group, which allegedly includes K Kavitha, daughter of the Telangana Chief Minister, and Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, a Lok Sabha MP from the YSRCP, paid kickbacks to the tune of Rs 100 crore to AAP leaders.

The court also looked into allegations of destruction of his previous mobile phones and also the “apparent role played by him in not producing the file of one cabinet note put up through the then Excise Commissioner”.

It said that there “may be serious apprehensions of destruction or tampering of some further evidence and even of influencing some prime witnesses of this case by him”.

Sisodia’s lawyers had asked the court to look into the fact that two other excise officials in this case “face graver allegations and they were not arrested”.

The court said that his case can not be equated with the role of other two public servants as they were “merely officials of the excise department working ultimately under directions of the applicant”.

The court said investigation into Sisodia’s role was still not completed.

“Mere filing of a chargesheet against seven other co-accused does not matter much in a case like this where deep-rooted conspiracy for commission of some economic offences, affecting the people at large, is alleged to have been committed,” it said.

The court noted that there is sufficient oral and documentary evidence collected by the investigating agency to show that Sisodia was instrumental in getting a Punjab-based liquor manufacturer to surrender their L-1 licence by extending threats through the approver, Dinesh Arora, and co-accused Amit Arora and by “forcing closure of certain manufacturing units of the said licensee and some other persons related to owners by exercising influence upon the excise department of Punjab, where also AAP was ruling”.

The CBI had arrested Sisodia on February 26 in connection with its probe into alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped liquor policy for 2021-22. He has also been arrested by the ED in the same case; his bail hearing in the ED case will be on April 5.

On August 17 last year, the CBI filed an FIR in the case, and two days later, raided 21 locations in Delhi, including Sisodia’s house. He is among 15 booked in the CBI FIR – the others being three excise department officials and several vendors and distributors.