In a significant development, the Supreme Court today granted bail to senior AAP leader and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in the cases filed against him by the CBI and the ED in connection with the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy. This means that Mr. Sisodia will finally be walking out of jail after nearly 17 months of incarceration.
While the CBI arrested him on corruption charges on February 26 last year, the ED arrested him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on March 9 of the same year.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan delivered the verdict today declaring that relegating Mr. Sisodia to the trial court for seeking bail in these cases would constitute a “travesty of justice”.
The judges further noted that the ED as well as the CBI had named 493 witnesses and that the case involved scrutinising thousands of pages of documents. As a result, they asserted that there was not even the remotest possibility of the trial being concluded in the near future which warrants the grant of bail.
The judges thus recorded in the order, “In our view, keeping the appellant behind the bars for an unlimited period of time in the hope of speedy completion of trial would deprive his fundamental right to liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution. As observed time and again, the prolonged incarceration before being pronounced guilty of an offence should not be permitted to become punishment without trial.”
During the hearing today, the judges also declined an oral request of the ED counsel to restrict Mr. Sisoida from visiting the Delhi Secretariat or the Chief Minister’s office as was done in the case of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, when he was granted interim bail to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.
The Court however imposed certain bail conditions on Mr. Sisodia. He was ordered to furnish a bail bond of ₹10 lakh with two sureties, surrender his passport, and report twice a week on Monday and Thursday before the concerned Investigating Officer. The judges also directed the AAP leader to not make any attempt to influence witnesses or tamper with evidence.
Script and presentation: Aaratrika Bhaumik
Production: Kanishkaa Balachandran
