Delhi court extends Manish Sisodia's custody till May 31

Delhi's Rouse Avenue court on Tuesday extended the judicial custody of Aam Aadmi Party leader and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia till May 31.

Manish Sisodia has been in judicial custody since February 2023 in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case.

Both ED and CBI have opposed Sisodia’s bail pleas on the grounds that there are concerted efforts by the accused to delay the process of framing charges in the case.

Sisodia has challenged a trial court’s April 30 order by which his bail pleas were rejected.

The trial court had dismissed Sisodia's bail pleas in the corruption and money laundering cases lodged by the CBI and ED respectively in connection with alleged irregularities in the formulation and execution of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2021-22.

The beneficiaries diverted "illegal" gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection, the probe agencies have alleged.

According to the probe agencies, irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy and undue favours were extended to the licence holders.

Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26, 2023, for his alleged role in the "scam". The ED arrested him in the money laundering case stemming from the CBI FIR on March 9, 2023.

Sisodia resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28, 2023.

The Delhi government implemented the policy on November 17, 2021, but scrapped it at the end of September 2022 amid allegations of corruption.

(With PTI inputs)

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