CBI's figures only on paper, no money trail found: Sisodia tells Delhi HC
Darpan News Desk IANS, 20 Apr, 2023 10:58 AM
New Delhi, April 20 (IANS) Former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, told the Delhi High Court on Thursday that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has no evidence to show his involvement in the alleged Delhi excise policy case, and that he is being singled out so that he could be kept in jail.
On April 5, Sisodia had moved the high court challenging the March 31 order of CBI Judge M.K. Nagpal (Rouse Avenue Court) dismissing his bail plea.
Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan, appearing for the AAP leader, submitted before the bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma that all the other accused in the CBI case have been released on bail except Sisodia.
He also said that the probe agency has no proof to show that the AAP leader has tampered with evidence.
"They say that I do not cooperate. This can never be the ground to deny me bail. I am not required to cooperate, confess, or answer questions in the way they want. I am required to answer in the way I want, that is the Constitutional guarantee," Krishnan argued on behalf of Sisodia.
Another counsel for Sisodia, senior advocate Mohit Mathur, said that CBI's figures are just on paper and no money trail has been found.
"They have made me the chief architect of this alleged conspiracy through Vijay Nair. But Vijay Nair was arrested in September 2022 and was released in November, even before the charge sheet was filed. I was only called for questioning for the second time in February 2023. So, all these allegations about me being capable of influencing the witnesses is totally wrong," Mathur contended on behalf of Sisodia.
After hearing the matter at length, the court listed the case for next hearing on April 26.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S.V. Raju, the CBI counsel, will make his submissions the next time.
Justice Sharma also asked the ASG to explain to him how the excise policy is run and that the probe agency can call its investigating officer to explain him the same.
While denying Sisodia bail, CBI Judge Nagpal had said that Sisodia can, prima facie, be held to be the "architect of the criminal conspiracy".
He had observed that the payment of advance kickbacks of around Rs 90-100 crore was meant for Sisodia and his colleagues in the AAP government.
The court is not inclined to release Sisodia on bail at this stage of the investigation as his release may adversely affect the ongoing probe and will also seriously hamper its progress, the order had stated.
Alok Kumar, DCP Special Cell, said: "On April 8, acting on a secret information, the police laid a trap near Ghazipur Subzi Mandi and two key members of the syndicate were finally held with 2 kg of heroin." During questioning, Mohammad Alam disclosed that he had been supplying heroin for the last two years to different people in Delhi, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
In the last 24 hours, 441 doses were administered. The country has so far administered 220.66 crore vaccine doses. The active cases stand at 0.09 per cent and the recovery rate is 98.72 per cent.
"During checking, the police recovered 23 packets of heroin, weighing 24.295 kg, concealed in the enclosure of their car windows," the DGP said, adding that another chunk of 12 packets of heroin, weighing 12.620 kg, were recovered from the location disclosed by the accused.
On April 5, the ED had informed special judge Nagpal that it has found fresh evidence indicating Sisodia's involvement in the alleged excise policy scam, and the investigation is at a crucial stage. The court had extended the AAP leader's custody till April 17 in this case.
Senior SAD leader Prem Singh Chandumajra told the media here that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has failed to present the state's case for exemption from value cuts on wheat properly to the Centre due to which the cuts have been imposed.
Akash Kaushal, Additional Deputy Commissioner, West Delhi Police, said that the accused was identified as Abdul. His aides are absconding. They only played video of a girl using another mobile and would record it to extort money. The police official added that on March 23, a man lodged a complaint in this regard.
