Manish Sisodia’s CBI remand extended: Here is what was argued in court

Here is what was argued in court today, and what exactly Sisodia is in custody for.

What happened in court today?

Sisodia was produced before Special Judge MK Nagpal in the Rouse Avenue district court following the expiration of his five-day CBI custody.

CBI Special Public Prosecutor Pankaj Gupta sought three more days of custody, arguing that the probe agency had to confront Sisodia with other accused in the case and the money trail had to be established. The CBI alleged that Sisodia was “non cooperative, completely evasive and not disclosing true facts.”

“The accused needs to be confronted with two excise officials. He needs to be confronted with the case diary as well. Money trail has to be unearthed. He has been confronted with some officers. Some documents are missing as well from important files,” Gupta told the court.

Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan, appearing for Sisodia, said remand could not be granted till “he confesses”. “What is the difference between day 1 [of custody] and today? Non cooperation can’t be a ground for remand. We will wait till he confesses cannot be a ground of remand.”

Krishnan also said that the order of a police remand is an exception and not a rule, and asked: “What is the compelling reason?”

The court, however, as per Live Law, said that the CBI’s stand is that everything can’t be written in application, but “they’ve written in case diary”. It also said that Sisodia had been free to challenge the previous remand order in the High Court, which he had not done.

After the court granted Sisodia’s custody till Monday, the judge asked him how he was doing.

Sisodia, addressed the court for the first time since his arrest and said, “Every day from 8 am they keep asking the same questions… It is a mental harassment. They don’t have anything in documents, only in statements.”

How has the AAP reacted?

Aam Aadmi Party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Saturday: “Rs 8 crore cash was seized after raid on BJP MLA’s son in Karnataka. But they arrested Manish Sisodia, when in fact they didn’t find anything after raiding his house & bank lockers. This is great injustice.”

8 crore cash was seized after raid on BJP MLA’s son in Karnataka

But they arrested Manish Sisodia, when in fact they didn’t find anything after raiding his house & bank lockers

बड़ी नाइंसाफी है!

-CM @ArvindKejriwal #KarnatakaWantsKejriwal pic.twitter.com/rUETmonlT0

— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) March 4, 2023

Why was Manish Sisodia arrested?

Sisodia was arrested on February 26 after around eight hours of interrogation by the CBI regarding the alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy. Sisodia was questioned regarding various aspects of the excise policy, his alleged link with the accused mentioned in the FIR, and details of message exchanges from multiple phones among others.

The CBI officials said that the arrest was made after the Deputy CM didn’t cooperate in the investigation and avoided clarifications sought by them.

The chain of events culminating in Sisodia’s arrest by the CBI began in July 2022, when Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar submitted a report to Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, accusing Sisodia of providing undue benefits to liquor vend licensees in lieu of “kickbacks” and “commissions”, which were allegedly used by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Punjab Assembly elections in February that year.

The CBI named 15 individuals in its FIR filed in connection with the Delhi excise policy 2021-2022, with Sisodia topping the list. Quoting allegations in a memorandum issued by the office of the L-G the FIR said that Sisodia, then Delhi Excise Commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna, and two other senior excise department officials were “instrumental in recommending and taking decisions pertaining to excise policy for the year 2021-22 without the approval of competent authority with an intention to extend undue favours to the licensee post tender”.