New Delhi, May 8: Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted four days to the ED and CBI to file a reply to pleas filed by former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia seeking bail after a trial court denied him regular bail in money laundering cases being probed by both the agencies related to the alleged excise policy scam. Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma had, on May 3, issued a notice on Sisodia’s pleas seeking replies from both the agencies -- the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
On Wednesday, the agencies sought time to file their replies. The ED counsel sought a week’s time saying that the Investigating Officer was busy in the investigation, with the prosecution complaint. “We are also dealing with the case of another co-accused (Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal) before the Supreme Court. Give us one week.” To this, Sisodia’s counsel Vivek Jain objected arguing that the agencies have been probing the case for more than one and a half years.
“Before the Supreme Court they said, we would finish the trial within six months. The bail application was even adjourned many times before the Trial Court,” Jain said.
Noting that the ED is in the process of filing another prosecution complaint in relation to a co-accused in the case, the court granted four more days to the agencies to file their replies and posted the matter for hearing next on May 13. “...the accused is in custody, and four more days are granted to the respondents to file their replies. The reply be placed on court record by Monday and an advance copy is also supplied to the other side by Monday,” the court said.
A Delhi court on Tuesday extended, till May 15, the judicial custody of Manish Sisodia in the case being probed by the CBI. He is currently in judicial custody in ED’s case, too. Special Judge Kaveri Baweja of Rouse Avenue Court has also set the next date for further arguments regarding the framing of charges against the accused in the case. Last time, the high court judge had allowed Sisodia to meet his wife once a week after noting that the ED had no objection to it.
Judge Baweja had, on April 30, refused to grant bail to Sisodia who was seeking regular bail a second time. During the trial court’s decision to deny bail, it was noted that delays in the case proceedings were largely due to actions attributable to Sisodia himself, dismissing his claims of undue delay. Sisodia’s bail application has been pending since February.
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