'Stage is not right': Delhi court rejects Sisodia's bail pleas
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New Delhi: The bail pleas submitted by former Delhi deputy chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia in the corruption and money laundering cases lodged by the CBI and the ED were dismissed by a Delhi court on Tuesday, PTI reported.
Refusing to grant bail, CBI and ED special judge Kaveri Baweja said that the stage was not right to grant the bail. The court had reserved its order after hearing arguments from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), as well as the counsel appearing for Sisodia.
The cases were connected to the alleged excise scam in Delhi.
Both the central agencies argued that there were irregularities when the Delhi Excise Policy was modified. There were undue favours extended to the licence holders, such as the licence fee being waived or reduced and licences being extended without the approval of the competent authority.
Further, the beneficiaries allegedly diverted "illegal" gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detections, probe agencies alleged.
The CBI arrested Sisodia on February 2023 for his alleged involvement in the "scam", and the ED arrested him in a money laundering case related to the scam, based on the FIR CBI filed on March 9, 2023.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Praveen Shankar Kapoor filed a defamation case against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet minister Atishi for accusing the BJP of attempting to poach its MLAs. Both the Aam Aadmi Party leaders have accused the saffron party of MLA poaching. Praveen Shankar Kapoor's charges stem from Kejriwal's allegations on January 27 that the BJP had offered Rs 25 crore each to seven Aam Aadmi Party MLAs to quit the party. The money, according to Kejriwal, was offered to unsettle and topple the AAP administration in Delhi.
Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi also accused the BJP of launching 'Operation Lotus 2.0', adding that 'They had made a similar attempt to poach AAP MLAs last year by offering them money but failed.'