Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court on Wednesday extended the judicial custody of AAP leader and former deputy CM Manish Sisodia till April 17 in connection to ED's money laundering case, news agency ANI reported.
The agency moved an application seeking an extension of judicial custody, saying the investigation is at a crucial stage.
This comes after Manish Sisodia's bail plea in the excise policy scam case being probed by the CBI was dismissed last week. The next hearing on the matter has been scheduled on April 12.
Sisodia Prima Facie Architect Of Conspiracy: Court After Rejecting Bail
Special CBI judge M K Nagpal said that the former excise minister was "prima facie the architect" and played the "most important and vital role" in the criminal conspiracy relating to alleged payment of advance kickbacks of around Rs 90-100 crore, meant for him and his colleagues in the Delhi government.
According to news agency PTI, he observed that the release of the senior AAP leader, who is in custody since February 26 in the case, at the moment will "adversely affect the ongoing investigation". The judge said out of the amount of the advance kickbacks, Rs 20-30 crore was found to be routed through the "co-accused Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally and approver Dinesh Arora".
The counsel appearing for Sisodia, meanwhile, claimed that the ED does not have evidence to prove the charge that he had indulged in money laundering. “There's no basis (for the charge). They've probed and examined everything, raided my residence etc. but found nothing. The (excise) policy was approved by various authorities concerned, including the LG. Now you're blaming Sisodia solely. Also, this (the probe) is not under the preview of the ED,” the counsel said.
The CBI arrested Sisodia in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 on February 26, following several rounds of quizzing by the agency.
Elaborating on the criminal conspiracy aspect, the judge referred to the CBI's submissions on the probe conducted so far and said Sisodia played the "most important and vital role in the above criminal conspiracy" and he had been deeply involved in the formulation as well as the implementation of the said policy to ensure achievement of objectives of the said conspiracy.
"Thus, it is clear from the above discussion that the applicant had played the most important and vital role in the criminal conspiracy and he had been deeply involved in the formulation as well as the implementation of the said policy to ensure the achievement of objectives of the said conspiracy... Thus, as per allegations made by the prosecution and the evidence collected in support thereof so far, the applicant can prima facie be held to be the architect of the said criminal conspiracy," the judge said, as quoted by PTI.
The CBI had opposed the bail plea saying that though Sisodia was not a flight risk, he was "definitely" in a position to influence witnesses and destroy evidence.