New Delhi: A city court Friday sent former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, arrested in a money laundering case related to the excise policy, to the Enforcement Directorate’s custody till March 17. Special judge MK Nagpal allowed the anti-money laundering probe agency to interrogate the senior AAP leader in custody. The ED had sought Sisodia’s custody for 10 days. Earlier the court heard arguments of the ED and Manish Sisodia’s lawyers on the AAP leader’s custody.
There was heavy security presence within and outside the Rouse Avenue Courts.
The lawyer for ED alleged Manish Sisodia made false statements about the ‘scam’ and that it wanted to unearth the modus operandi of the perpetrators and confront him with the other accused. ED’s counsel Zoheb Hossain also claimed before a special court that Sisodia destroyed his phone, an important piece of evidence in the investigation. The lawyer for the federal anti-money laundering probe agency alleged Sisodia made false statements about the ‘scam’.
The claims of the ED counsel were contested by a battery of lawyers who represented Sisodia. Senior advocates Dayan Krishnan, Mohit Mathur and Siddharth Aggarwal said the excise policy was accepted by the Lieutenant Governor who must have examined it.
Sisodia’s lawyers while opposing the ED’s plea for his custody said it is the executive’s job to make policy which goes through several layers of scrutiny. “How can ED look into policy making in money-laundering case,” the AAP leader’s counsel asked the court.
“ED has not found a single penny from Manish Sisodia…The case is entirely based on hearsay,” the lawyer said.
The ED arrested Sisodia Thursday evening in the Tihar jail, where he was lodged in connection with a case being probed by the CBI pertaining to alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy for 2021-22.