Sisodia moves Delhi HC for interim bail, states wife's ill-health
Darpan News Desk IANS, 03 May, 2023 11:58 AM
New Delhi, May 3 (IANS) Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia on Wednesday moved the High Court seeking interim bail in the now-scrapped excise policy case being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Sisodia has sought for interim bail on the ground of illness of his wife.
Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma, while listing the plea for consideration on Thursday with his regular bail plea, also asked the CBI to try make efforts to file the status report in the matter on the same day itself.
Last week, Special Judge M.K. Nagpal of the Rouse Avenue Court had extended Sisodia's judicial custody till May 12.
The court had also directed the CBI to supply an e-copy of the supplementary charge sheet to Sisodia.
Claiming that the probe agency had filed an incomplete investigation in the case, Sisodia's counsel had urged the court to grant default bail to his client.
"Prima facie it seems the agency is saying that further investigation regarding me is required/pending. Therefore, we reserve the right to file an application for statutory bail," counsel had said.
The probe agency had filed the charge sheet on April 25.
On April 26, the CBI had told the Delhi High Court that the excise policy scam it is probing, is a "deep-rooted conspiracy" and that it is not as simple as depicted.
Jusge Nagpal had on April 29 also extended Sisodia's custody till May 8 in the case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
A day before, the judge had denied bail to Sisodia holding that the evidence prima facie "speaks volumes" of his involvement in commission of the offence.
Two Covid-19-related deaths have also been reported in the same time span. The positivity rate of the city has risen to 13.79 per cent. The number of active cases stands at 806 out of which 452 patients are being treated in home isolation.
Lakhimpur Kheri Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Santosh Gupta, said that one staff member was also found Covid-positive during a contact tracing exercise on Sunday after which the entire campus has been turned into a quarantine centre by the Health department. This is the highest number of new Covid cases reported in a district in a day this year.
During thorough search of the area on Monday, BSF troops recovered six packets, containing 6.27 kg heroin, inside a bag lying in the fields near the village. A motorcycle was also found nearby.
According to the police, a 67-year-old man had filed a complaint with the cyber police station in Shahdara district wherein he alleged that on March 18, he had received a WhatsApp video call from an unknown number in which a girl was performing some obscene act.
The accused -- 19-year-old Rohit Kumar and 26-year-old Kamal -- are residents of Sitapur. During interrogation, Rohit told police that the truck driver Harpinder, 60, originally from Faridkot district, tried to harass him sexually under the influence of alcohol.
XBB 1.16 was first found in January. However, while only two samples were found then, the number rose to 138 in February, and in March till date total 204 samples of this variant have been found through genome sequencing. The highest number of cases of this variant have been found in Maharashtra at 105, followed by Telangana 93, Karnataka 57 and Gujarat 54 as per the data.
