New Delhi: Manish Sisodia judicial custody extended till November 22

New Delhi : A Delhi court on Thursday extended the judicial custody of Manish Sisodia, the former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, in connection with the excise policy case. 

Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court on Thursday extended the judicial custody of Manish Sisodia, the former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, till November 22 in the Delhi excise policy case.

Sisodia has been in custody since his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26, in connection with the alleged ‘scam.’ The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested him on March 9 in a money laundering case arising from the CBI’s FIR, following an interrogation at Tihar Jail.

The Delhi court’s decision comes after the matter was discussed in the Supreme Court, where concerns were raised by the Enforcement Directorate regarding an alleged bribe related to the modification of Delhi’s excise policy.

It was stated that if this alleged bribe is not considered a predicate offence, it might pose challenges for the federal probe agency to establish charges of money laundering against Manish Sisodia.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti, who had been deliberating two separate regular bail pleas by Sisodia in the corruption and money laundering cases, said that assumptions about the payment of bribes cannot be the basis for legal actions. They stressed the importance of upholding the legal rights of the accused under the law.