The Supreme Court on Monday rejected AAP leader Manish Sisodia’s bail pleas in corruption and money-laundering cases related to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam and said the transfer of Rs 338 crore was tentatively established in the matter.
Meanwhile, The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for questioning on November 2 in connection with its ongoing probe into the Delhi excise policy scam case. The AAP supremo has been issued the summons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had summoned Kejriwal in April this year in connection with the case, though he had not been named as an accused in its FIR. The ED has mentioned the chief minister’s name multiple times in its chargesheets filed in the case. The agency claimed that the accused were in touch with the AAP leader regarding the preparation and execution of the excise policy.
The BJP has hit out at the AAP, stating the Supreme Court’s observation that the transfer of Rs 338 crore was tentatively established “proved that Manish Sisodia and AAP are full of corruption.”
“After this decision, it has been proved that Manish Sisodia and AAP are full of corruption. Now the arrest of top leaders of AAP is near. Arvind Kejriwal too will get arrested,” BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said.
BJP leader Shehzad Poonawalla too said the defences of AAP have fallen flat. “After trial court and high court, now the Supreme Court has also denied bail to Manish Sisodia. All the defences of AAP fell flat on their faces. The Supreme Court said that a Rs 338 crore money trail has been established. AAP was continuously saying, where is the money trail? They kept lying to the people of this country. How long will Arvind Kejriwal continue to defend these people?” he asked.
A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice SVN Bhatti said the “aspect with regard to the transfer of money Rs 338 crore tentatively is established.” The bench added that in the verdict it has referred to the arguments and some of the legal questions which arose but were not answered. “Most of them are not answered and if they have been answered, they have been answered in a very limited way,” Justice Khanna said.
BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi too said the scam is not an allegation anymore. “It is now a quantitative submission of the Rs 338 crore money trail. Now Arvind Kejriwal’s government will have to tell the court where the money is?” Trivedi added.
The Delhi government had implemented the policy on November 17, 2021, but scrapped it at the end of September 2022 amid allegations of corruption. According to the investigating agencies, the profit margins of wholesalers were increased from 5 per cent to 12 per cent under the new policy.
The agencies have alleged that the new policy resulted in cartelisation and those ineligible for liquor licences were favoured for monetary benefits. However, the Delhi government and Sisodia have denied any wrongdoing and said the new policy would have led to an increase in Delhi’s revenue share.
