HomeBreaking NewsExcise case: Court sends Delhi CM Manish Sisodia to 5-day CBI custody

Excise case: Court sends Delhi CM Manish Sisodia to 5-day CBI custody

A court here on Monday sent Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to five-day CBI custody in the excise policy case to enable the agency to get “genuine and legitimate” answers to questions put to him for a “proper and fair investigation”.

Special Judge M K Nagpal passed the order on a request by the CBI, which produced the AAP leader in court amid tight security inside and outside the Rouse Avenue court premises a day after he was arrested. The agency requested his five-day custodial interrogation.

The judge said that though the accused had joined the investigation of this case on two previous occasions, it was also observed that he did not give satisfactory answers to most of the questions put to him during interrogation and questioning. Thus, he has failed to legitimately explain the incriminating evidence alleged to have surfaced against him during the investigation conducted so far.

It is true that he cannot be expected to make a self-incriminating statement, but the interests of justice and a fair investigation require him to come up with some legitimate answers to the questions put to him by the Investigating Officer (IO).

Judge Decision

The judge says “Some of his subordinates have been found to have divulged certain facts which may be considered incriminating against him, and some documentary evidence against him has also already appeared a proper and fair investigation requires that genuine and legitimate answers be found to the questions put to him about the same and therefore in the considered opinion of this court, this can only be done during the custodial interrogation of the accused, the accused is remanded in CBI custody for a period of 05 days, i.e. till March 4, 2023, for further and extensive interrogation”.

He added that regarding the apprehensions expressed by the senior counsels about the use of any force or third-degree methods to extract information from the accused, “this court does not expect the same from the CBI officers who have been given the task of questioning the accused holding the senior post of Dy.” GNCTD Chief Minister and also some other important portfolios”.

In any case, such seizure can always be resolved by imposing certain conditions, the judge said.

“Therefore, it is also ordered that the interrogation of the accused during this time shall be conducted at some place which shall be covered by CCTV in accordance with the directions laid down by the Supreme Court and the said record shall be preserved by the CBI. He is also subject to the condition that he will be medically examined once in 48 hours,” the judge said.

The judge also allowed Sisodia to meet his defense lawyers for half an hour between 6:00 pm and 7:00 pm every day during his CBI custody so that agency officials could not hear their conversations. “Furthermore, the accused will be allowed to meet his wife for 15 minutes every day during the aforesaid hour,” the judge said while allowing Sisodia to take certain medicines prescribed to him.

The CBI on Sunday night arrested Sisodia in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now scrapped liquor policy for 2021-22. During the hearing, which lasted more than an hour, Sisodia’s counsel said that it was the lieutenant governor who approved the changes in the excise policy and that the central probe agency was after the elected government.

“I can’t do anything. It has to be approved by the relevant authority,” he said. Claiming that there was no evidence against him, Sisodia opposed the CBI’s request to remand him.

Sisodia’s lawyer told the court “I (Sisodia) am the finance minister. I have to present the budget… what changed yesterday about the finance minister being put in detention? Wasn’t he available on other days? Or was this arrest done with ulterior motives? This case is an attack on both the individual and the institution. Remand will send a message, this is a fit case to deny remand”.

He stated that Sisodia was acting as a member of the Delhi government and therefore the decision cannot be attributed to him or questioned. The CBI counsel said Sisodi’s custody was required for effective interrogation in the case.

Sisodia claimed that he had no role in the case, but investigations showed that he personally made decisions, the agency said. Sisodia’s counsel, while opposing the remand request of the investigating agency, said that the CBI claims that he exchanged mobile phones but that is not a crime.

The counsel said that the policy was introduced after taking suggestions even from the Delhi Governor and that since it required consultation, there was no chance of a conspiracy. “I tried to keep everything open,” he said.

Sisodia was represented by leading advocates Dayan Krishnan, Mohit Mathur and Siddharth Aggarwal. The CBI informed the court that further investigation is underway in the case. Earlier this month, the agency interrogated Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain in Tihar jail in connection with the case after obtaining permission from a judge.

Jain was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case. He is not accused in the consumer policy case. The CBI also probed the communications of AAP Vijay Nair, who is also lodged in Tihar jail, in connection with the excise money laundering case being investigated by the ED. Nair was earlier granted bail by the court in the CBI excise policy case.

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