New Delhi: The Supreme Court today, August 9, granted bail to Manish Sisodia who was arrested while he was deputy chief minister of Delhi in connection with the Delhi excise policy cases registered by both the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26, 2023, for his alleged role in the “scam”. The ED arrested him in a money laundering case stemming from the CBI FIR on March 9, 2023.
A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan granted the Aam Aadmi Party leader bail, Bar and Bench has reported.
The bail, subject to Rs 2 lakh in bonds and the surrender of his passport, quashes the Delhi high court’s order denying him bail.
The court noted, scathingly, that Sisodia had been robbed off the right to a speedy trial – which it called a ‘sacrosanct right’.
“Recently in Javed Gulam Nabi Shaikh case we dealt with this angle and we noted that when court, state or agency cannot protect the right to speedy trial, then bail cannot be opposed saying that crime is serious. Article 21 applies irrespective of the nature of the crime,” the court said, according to Bar and Bench.
The court also observed that “there is no remote possibility of completion of trial within time” and keeping Sisodia jailed would violate Article 21.
It added that he has “deep roots in society and he cannot flee.”
It also said that there is no chance of him tampering with evidence because the case “largely depends of documentation.”
The court turned down the ED’s argument that the delay in trial was due to various applications filed by Sisodia himself before the trial court.
