A court here on Wednesday extended till May 30 the judicial custody of former Deputy Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia, arrested in a money laundering case linked to the now-withdrawn Delhi excise policy for 2021-22.
Special Judge of the Rouse Avenue Court, Kaveri Baweja, also fixed May 30 as the date for further arguments on the framing of charges against him.
The court order came over two weeks after it denied bail to him in the case. Mr. Sisodia is in jail since February last year.
The case against Mr. Sisodia is based on an FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation [CBI] on the complaint of Delhi Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena, alleging multiple irregularities in the excise policy, which was subsequently withdrawn.
After the CBI case, the Enforcement Directorate [ED] filed a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, alleging that the money earned through the excise policy was diverted through “hawala” channels to be spent on the AAP’s campaign in Goa ahead of the Assembly election there in 2022.
Earlier seeking bail, his lawyer had submitted in the court that both ED and CBI are still making arrests in the case, which is likely to delay the trial.
