Delhi: Manish Sisodia is lodged in Tihar Jail in the Delhi liquor scam case. He has reached the Supreme Court to come out of jail on bail. His petition was to be heard in the Supreme Court today i.e. on Thursday. But just before the hearing, Supreme Court judge Sanjay Kumar recused himself from the case. Now the hearing on Manish Sisodia’s bail plea has been postponed. The Supreme Court has now ordered to list the case before a new bench next week. Former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has been in jail since February 2023.
In fact, Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kumar on Thursday recused himself from hearing Manish Sisodia’s petitions. Manish Sisodia, in his petition, has sought a re-hearing on the bail plea in the excise policy scam case. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Sanjay Karol and Sanjay Kumar said that Manish Sisodia’s two separate petitions will be heard by a second bench, in which Justice Sanjay Kumar will not be included. Manish Sisodia, in his petition, has sought a re-hearing of the bail plea in the liquor scam cases registered by ED and CBI.
As soon as the hearing on the bail plea began, Justice Khanna said, ‘Our brother (Justice Kumar) has some problem. He would not like to hear the case due to personal reasons. Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Manish Sisodia, requested the bench to list the case as soon as possible. He said that time is very important. He said that the hearing in both the cases has not started yet. The bench said that a second bench will hear the case on July 15.
On June 4, the Supreme Court refused to hear Sisodia’s bail plea in the cases registered by CBI and ED related to the alleged Delhi liquor policy scam. Earlier, Manish Sisodia had approached the Supreme Court challenging the May 21 decision of the Delhi High Court, in which his bail plea was rejected in the cases being investigated by both the central agencies.
AAP leader Manish Sisodia had challenged in the High Court the lower court’s order of April 30, which rejected his bail plea in cases related to alleged irregularities in the formulation and execution of the now-canceled Delhi Excise Policy for 2021-22. On October 30 last year, the Supreme Court had refused to grant him bail in corruption and money laundering cases related to the alleged Delhi Excise Policy scam. The court had said that the allegation of unexpected profits of Rs 338 crore to wholesale liquor dealers was ‘temporarily supported’ by the evidence. Manish Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26, 2023 for his alleged role in the liquor policy case. Investigating agency ED arrested him on March 9, 2023 in a money laundering case related to the CBI FIR. Manish Sisodia resigned from the cabinet in the Kejriwal government on February 28, 2023.
