Delhi excise policy case: HC seeks ED's reply in Benoy Babu's bail plea

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought a response from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on bail plea of Benoy Babu, who is accused in the excise policy case.

Babu, who worked as a general manager with the liquor firm Pernod Ricard's, moved the High Court on Tuesday.

The agency had arrested him on November 10 last year.

After hearing the arguments, the court listed the matter for the next hearing on March 16.

A copy of the detailed order is awaited.

A Delhi court on February 16 had rejected Babu's bail plea with four others.

The four others, who were denied bail by the Special Judge of Rouse Avenue Courts M.K. Nagpal, are Abhishek Boinpally, Sarath Chandra Reddy, Sameer Mahendru and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Vijay Nair.

While denying bail, Nagpal had said that the method adopted by the five persons for committing the offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) makes up for sufficient incriminating evidence.

As the ED has already levelled serious allegations of tampering evidence against them, the court said that it will also be not possible to hold that the accused persons will not try to tamper evidence in case they are released on bail.

"Keeping in view the totality of facts and circumstances and the above discussion, this court is of the considered opinion that none of the applicants/accused deserves to be released on bail in this case at this stage of proceedings, as the allegations levelled against them are quite serious and relate to commission of an economic offence of money-laundering defined by Section 3 and made punishable by Section 4 of the PMLA. Hence, their bail applications are being dismissed," the court had observed.

Rouse Avenue Courts on Tuesday sent Raghav Magunta, son of YSR Congress Party MP Magunta Srinivas Reddy, and Rajesh Joshi, an aide of Aam Aadmi Party's communication in-charge Vijay Nair, to judicial custody in the same case.