Why has party that got proceeds of crime not been made accused in excise case: SC asks CBI, ED

The AAP leader was arrested on February 26.

The bench, also comprising Justice S V N Bhatti, posed the query to Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S V Raju who appeared for the two agencies. The ASG said he will respond to the query when the court hears the matter Thursday.

The top court also asked the ASG to explain the position with regard to Cabinet notes, and whether the court can examine them. “I believe there are Constitution bench judgments barring us from examining Cabinet notes. I do not know if it applies to Delhi, because it is a Union Territory,” Justice Khanna told Raju.

Appearing for Sisodia, Senior Advocate A M Singhvi said the agencies were relying on “vague statements” to try and link Sisodia with co-accused Vijay Nair, but there is “no specific allegation” and “no money trail”.

“The allegation is that Vijay Nair is said to be Sisodia’s close associate. But there is no material to prove he was my agent. The reliance is on various vague statements that have to be proven during trial… There is no specific individual allegation against Sisodia. Vague allegation is that he assisted in the proceeds of crime. But there is no money trail,” Singhvi contended.

The senior counsel said that every other accused in the case had got bail except Sisodia. “Unfortunately, in public life, there are some high-value targets and they won’t get bail,” he submitted.

Underlining that the liquor policy was a “collective decision”, Singhvi said that it stopped cartelisation and increased revenue. “The new policy restricted the scope for unreasonable profits and capped it at 12%. There were massive leaks in the old policy,” he said, adding that “the old lobby wanted the status quo to continue”.

He said that some of the accused had managed to get bail after they gave statements implicating Sisodia and added, “Judges have to read between the lines also and I urge your lordships to do so. Everything cannot be black and white.”