The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia in corruption and money laundering cases linked to alleged Delhi excise policy scam. The Apex Court directs that Manish Sisodia be released on bail on personal bond of Rs 10 lakh with two sureties of like amount. The former deputy chief minister of Delhi was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26, 2023 for the purported irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested him in the money laundering case stemming from the CBI FIR on March 9, 2023.
While granting bail to the AAP leader, the SC said, "Courts must realise that bail is a rule & jail is an exception."
WHAT THE COURT SAID:
- It is high time trial courts, High Courts recognise principle of bail is rule and jail is exception.
- It would be travesty of justice to relegate Manish Sisodia to trial court for seeking bail
- Manish Sisodia is in custody for 17 months and trial has not yet commenced; this deprives his right to speedy trial
- Sisodia has been deprived of the right to speedy trial. Right to speedy trial is a sacrosanct right.
- Sisodia has deep roots in society and he cannot flee. Regarding tampering evidence, case largely depends on documentation and thus it is all seized and there no chance of tampering
- High Courts and trial courts are "playing it safe" by routinely denying bail
- Sisodia has right to inspect lengthy documents.
- Procedures cannot be made a mistress of justice. In our view the liberty reserved will have to be construed as liberty to revive the petition after filing of chargesheet. Thus we do not entertain the preliminary objection and is this rejected
Advocate representing Manish Sisodia, Rishikesh Kumar said, "The court has said that if you have the evidence then there is no case of tampering. If you have kept him in jail for so long, it's against the principles of bail. Be it the case of ED or section 45, the cardinal rule of bail is applied there. And keeping this in mind, that Manish Sisodia has already been in jail for 17 months, the Supreme Court dismissed all the pleas of ED and granted him bail. The Court has also said that the statement of ED in court that trial will end in 6-8 months, it doesn't seem it will..."
Case development till date
The Supreme Court had on August 6 reserved its verdict in the bail plea in connection with the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy of 2021-22. Sisodia has been in custody since February 26, 2023. The case involves allegations that Delhi government officials tweaked the excise policy to benefit certain liquor sellers in exchange for bribes that were used to fund the AAP's elections in Goa. Sisodia had filed several bail applications in the matter to no avail.
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