Delhi court sends Sisodia to ED custody till March 17 in excise policy case

The ED had sought 10-day custody of the former Deputy CM of Delhi

A court here on Friday sent former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia to custodial interrogation of the Enforcement Directorate till March 17 in a money laundering case in connection with the scrapped Delhi Excise policy.

Special CBI Judge M K Nagpal remanded Sisodia to the ED's custody on an application filed by the agency.

Sisodia was first arrested by the CBI on February 16. He had remained in CBI's custody for seven days.

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He was arrested by the ED on Thursday in the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The Enforcement Directorate led by advocate Zoheb Hossain submitted that the agency wanted to interrogate the accused to unearth the entire scam.

It sought 10 days of custody of Sisodia.

"We want to unearth the entire modus operandi. We need to confront him with some other people," the counsel submitted.

He claimed all the changes were made in the Delhi Excise policy to enable the South Group to earn undue gains and help certain private entities get huge benefits.

"Calling up of public response to the policy was a mere eyewash and nothing else. There was no suggestion by the public or stakeholders to fix the profit margin at 12%. This has been confirmed by the Excise department," he said.

The conspiracy was coordinated by Vijay Nair and others along with South Group, the counsel claimed, adding the scam started with the drafting of the Delhi excise policy by Sisodia and others.

He said there was a need to unravel the scam and sought custodial interrogation of Sisodia, Hossain said.

He also alleged certain statements showed that BRS leader K Kavitha met Vijay Nair. He (Nair) wanted to show how he can influence the policy. He was acting on behalf of the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, Hossain said.

"Within a span of one year, 14 phones have been destroyed and changed. Sisodia has used phones purchased by others and SIM cards that are not in his name so that he can use it as a defence later. Even the phone used by him is not in his name," Hossain argued.

Opposing ED's arguments, senior advocate Dayan Krishnan, appearing for Sisodia, argued that let us not forget the distinction between predicate offence and money laundering. It is their (ED) duty to show the tracing of money to him (Sisodia).

"Even not a single money was traced to me, so they say Vijay Nair was acting on my behalf. Why have they not been able to trace even a single Rupee to me? I am completely innocent in the case," the counsel said.

In money laundering, you are supposed to look at concealment, possession and use. It has to be traced to the individual. Not a single penny has been traced to me. It is laughable to say the least, Krishan argued.

It is the Executive's job to make policy, which goes through several layers. In this case, also, Delhi excise policy was accepted by LG and others, they must have examined it, the counsel said.

"The PMLA is 'draconian', and the probe agency arrested Sisodia, only to keep him in jail, nothing else," he said.

The court, meanwhile, fixed Sisodia's bail plea for consideration on March 21.