New Delhi, April 12 (IANS) A Delhi court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing in AAP leader Manish Sisodia's bail plea in connection with the Delhi excise policy case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The ED submitted before the bench of special judge M.K. Nagpal of the Rouse Avenue Court that Sisodia had planted fabricated e-mails to show that there was public approval for the policy.
"We have evidence that Sisodia had e-mails planted. These were received not only in the official e-mail account of the excise department, but even in his personal e-mail account. The content of the e-mails was given by Sisodia which suited his agenda," the ED counsel told the court while opposing Sisodia's bail plea.
The directions to send these pre-drafted e-mails were given to Zakir Khan, Chairman of Delhi Minorities' Commission, who then asked his interns to send the e-mails, the ED told the court.
"Fabricated e-mails were sent to show that there was public approval for the excise policy. It was a sham approval. An illegal ecosystem was created to give benefits to the liquor cartels in lieu of kickbacks," the ED counsel said.
The ED's special public prosecutor Zoheb Hossain then told the judge that the agency wants to show him the case diary. To this, Sisodia's counsel said that it should not be done so in secrecy.
"Sealed cover business should go. If something is used against me to deny me my liberty, if they are relying on something behind my back, it should be shown to me as well," the counsel said on behalf of Sisodia.
However, the probe agnecy said that the 60 days given to complete the investigation against Sisodia are not over yet.
The ED counsel said: "We will show it to you after 60 days."
The court then adjourned the matter for next hearing on April 18.
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.
Advocate Vivek Jain, representing Sisodia, had told the court that the ED lacked evidence to support the accusation that his client was involved in money laundering.
The daily positivity rate was at 6.91 per cent while weekly positivity rate stood at 3.67 per cent as per the data released by the Ministry. The active caseload currently stands at 35,199. The recovery rate is at 98.73 per cent.
The accused were identified as Sonu Kumar, 27, his brother-in-law Sandeep, and Jony alias Rocky, all residents of Haryana. Police said that they have recovered 113 ATMS cards of various bank, and two PayTm machines from the possession of the accused, and claimed to have solved 14 cases of cheating with the trio's arrest.
The livestock sector, he said, with rapid growth is becoming a major contributor to the growth of the agriculture and allied sector. "The livestock sector is likely to grow by 4.18 per cent in 2022-23," Cheema said, while adding the livestock sector's share in total Gross State Value Added (GSVA) of Punjab was 11.1 per cent during 2022-23.
The regular service of this Vande Bharat Express will start from April 13, and it will operate between Ajmer and Delhi Cantonment, with stops at Jaipur, Alwar and Gurgaon. The launch of the express train comes just eight months before the state goes for assembly polls.
The Health Ministry said that till now 220.66 crore Total Vaccine doses (95.21 cr Second Dose and 22.87 cr Precaution Dose) have been administered under the nationwide vaccination drive. 1,993 doses were administered in the last 24 hours.
On Wednesday night, a team of district police and excise department went to Dharauli Dhangar Toli village and arrested a woman, Gayatri Devi, along with four liters of country-made liquor. The sleuths have taken Gayatri in police van to go to the police station.
