Sisodia is already in judicial custody in a corruption case being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Posted on – Wed, 3/22/23 at 03:43pm
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday placed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in judicial custody until April 5, with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigating the GST policy case.
Sisodia’s ED custody was extended on March 17 and when it expired he was brought before Special Judge MK Nagpal in Rouse Avenue Court. “We will place him in judicial custody until April 5,” the judge said.
Sisodia is already in judicial custody in a corruption case being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
However, Sisodia urged the court to allow him to carry some religious and spiritual books while in judicial custody.
The court then asked him to file an application in this regard.
Sisodia filed a bail plea on Tuesday at the same court in the ED case, and the court, while issuing a notice to the central agency, has scheduled the matter for its next hearing on March 25.
On Monday, the court had placed Sisodia in judicial custody until April 3 in the same Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case.
After the CBI arrested Sisodia on February 26, the ED also arrested him in the same case on March 9.
At the final hearing in the ED’s case, the ED informed the court that important details arose during Sisodia’s detention and he had to confront the other defendants.
The investigative agency has informed the court that a trove of data, including emails and mobile phones from Sisodia, is also being forensically analyzed.
Sisodia’s lawyers, however, objected to the central agency’s request for remand, saying the agency did not disclose any information on the proceeds of crime, which is crucial to the case.
His lawyer further argued that seeking extended custody was unwarranted and that Sisodia had only faced four people during his earlier seven-day detention.
The ED had said they needed to dig up the modus operandi, the whole scam, and confront Sisodia with the others.
The transfer of tainted funds through hawala channels is also under investigation, ED’s lawyer Zoheb Hossain said in a claim that Sisodia was part of a “money laundering relationship”.
Hussain had said the policy was put in place to ensure huge profits for certain private entities and for one of the biggest cartels to run 30 percent of Delhi’s liquor business.
Referring to the meeting between the restaurant association and Sisodia, the ED claimed to give relaxation to restaurants in terms of GST policy, such as lowering the legal drinking age and other things.
The central agency argued that Sisodia destroyed the evidence.
“Over the course of a year, 14 phones were destroyed and replaced,” the agency claimed.
“Sisodia had used a cell phone purchased by someone else and a SIM card not in his name so that he could later use it as a defense. Even the phone he was using was not in his name,” the ED attorney submitted.
ED claims that he (Sisodia) has been evasive from the start.
There is a conspiracy behind the GST policy. The ED argued in court that the conspiracy was coordinated by Vijay Nair and others and that the GST policy was made for the wholesaler’s excess profit margins.
