Day before bail hearing, Sisodia gets arrested again; now its ED

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate arrested former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia a day before his bail plea was to be heard. ED arrested him on a case on Thursday regarding the 2021-22 Delhi excise policy case, IANS reported.

Officials informed that the central agency arrested Sisodia after hours of grilling inside the Tihar jail on its probe over the money laundering case with alleged irregularities on the 2021-22 excise policy of Delhi.

On February 27, the CBI arrested Sisodia in the same case, and he was sent to judicial custody till March 20. His bail plea was to be heard by the Rouse Avenue District Court on Friday.

According to sources from ED, it had obtained permission to question Sisodia, and it is going to seek his custodial remand.

On Thursday, ED subjected Sisodia to an alleged case of kickbacks of Rs 100 crore, which the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its leaders received through Hawala channels from the South Group.

IANS learned that Sisodia was asked about Arun Pillai and K Kavitha, Telangana CM KCR's daughter, on alleged involvement in the case.

The 51-year-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader's statement was first recorded by the government investigation agency on March 7 and was recorded for approximately five hours. It is alleged that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers, who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP.

The policy was later scrapped, and the Delhi LG recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED booked a case against the same accused under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.