Manish Sisodia sent to judicial custody till March 20, requests court to lodge him in meditation cell

Former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on the way to jail. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna)

Sisodia arrived before the judge following the expiration of the seven-day CBI custody. The CBI said it did not wish to seek his custody further but hinted it might seek his custody in the future.

The judge suggested that Sisodia be produced virtually on March 20. However, Sisodia requested that he be produced physically. “Mera bhi movement hoga (I will also get to move around),” he told the court.

Sisodia then requested that he be lodged inside a Vipassana cell, stating that meditation workshops were conducted inside the jail in the past. “There are people who stay in Vipassana cell. I request to be lodged there,” Sisodia told the court. The judge asked the jail superintendent to consider the request.

During the hearing, the CBI prosecutor alleged that witnesses were terrified in this case.  “In the future, we will seek police custody, see the conduct outside the court. The media and their (AAP) supporters are politicising the matter. He (Sisodia) is not supporting the investigation. The witnesses to be confronted, they are under apprehension and terrified. The media is giving (the arrest) political colour. They are terrifying the witnesses. Entire proceedings are as per law but they are politicising all these things. Bytes are running in the media before the order has come,” the CBI prosecutor told the court.

He alleged that before the court proceedings were conducted, news of the agency moving a judicial custody application was aired.

Senior advocate Mohit Mathur, who appeared for Sisodia, told the court “Let them check their own house in order.”

“Searches were conducted after taking warrants, chargesheet filed, cognisance of offence taken, accused was arrested, produced before the court…. police custody given. All these proceedings are conducted before the court… My concern is that court proceedings are going on, then they say what the CBI is doing is illegal,” the CBI prosecutor said.

Mathur said, “Reveal who is saying all this? They have not mentioned anything in their five-page remand order.”

“Further investigation is going on; various potential witnesses will be influenced,” the CBI prosecutor told the court.

On August 17, 2020, the CBI filed an FIR in the case and two days later, raided 21 locations in Delhi, including Sisodia’s house.

Sisodia is among the 15 accused booked in the CBI FIR – the others being three excise department officials and several vendors and distributors.

Sisodia has been accused of corruption in the Delhi liquor policy that was scrapped after Lt Governor V K Saxena called for a CBI probe. The allegation was that the government bent the rules and provided undue benefits to liquor vend owners. The AAP has been alleging that the CBI is “mentally torturing and harassing” Sisodia to accept the “baseless” allegations made against him.