According to sources, the hearing on AAP leader Manish Sisodia’s requests for interim release in two instances relating the Delhi excise policy that the CBI and ED are investigating was postponed by the Supreme Court on Friday to September 4.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti examined the medical records of Sisodia’s wife and came to the conclusion that she is “fairly stable” and will be taken into account along with regular bail pleas in the cases. Due to his wife’s deteriorating health, Sisodia has asked for a temporary release on bail.
On July 14, the top court had asked the ED and the CBI to comment on Manish Sisodia’s requests for temporary respite in the cases. Manish Sisodia was the deputy chief minister and held a number of other positions until being detained by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26 for his alleged role in the “scam”.
He has been held by the police ever since. The ED arrested him on March 9 in connection with a money laundering case resulting from the CBI FIR after interviewing him in Tihar Jail. The High Court declined to give him bail in the CBI inquiry on May 30, citing the fact that he had held the positions of both deputy chief minister and excise minister, making him a “high profile” person with the power to influence the witnesses.
The high court refused him bail on July 3 in a money laundering case involving alleged anomalies in the municipal government’s excise policy, finding that the allegations against him are “very severe and serious in nature”. Further, he was at the “helm of affairs” while the alleged fraud took place. Manish Sisodia cannot assert that he had no involvement in it, the top court said in a decision dated May 30.
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