Manish Sisodia Was Instrumental In Implementation Of Excise Policy, Arrest In Money Laundering Case Justified: Delhi Court

A Delhi Court on Friday said that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia was instrumental at every state in the formulation and implementation of Delhi excise policy for the year 2021-22 and that his arrest by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the money laundering registered was justified.

Special Judge MK Nagpal made the observations while remanding the AAP leader to seven days of ED custody in the money laundering case till March 17.

The judge observed that ED has powers to seek custody of Sisodia for his further examination and interrogation.

The court also noted that Sisodia was not only the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi at the relevant time but also the Excise Minister and hence, was directly responsible for framing as well as implementation of the excise policy.

“Thus, as per allegations made in this remand application, the accused was instrumental at every stage of formulation a s well a s implementation of the excise policy and he appears to be connected not only with generation of proceeds of crime, but also its repayment or re-coupment,” the court said.

Furthermore, it observed that there is nothing to suggest from the case file produced by the IO that Sisodia’s arrest was effected in violation of section 19 of the PMLA or that the same was otherwise illegal.

The court reasoned that the IO was found to have not only recorded the reasons for his belief about Sisodia being guilty of the offence of money laundering, but the grounds were also found to have been informed to Sisodia as per the mandate contained in the provision.

“The question whether or not the accused is entitled to a copy of the document containing grounds of his arrest will be decided separately after hearing the detailed submissions of both parties on the application, which has been moved separately for this purpose on behalf of the accused, and prima facie, the provisions of Section 19 of the said Act are found to have been complied in substance,” it said.

The special judge also observed that though section 19 of PMLA does not confer any specific power on ED to seek remand, however, it said that the power has to be inferred with the help of section 65 of PMLA and section 167 of CrPC.

“The power to seek remand is essentially a part of the power of arrest and to conduct investigation in respect to commission of the alleged offence of money laundering and this power has necessarily to be inferred with the help of above Section as Section 65 of the PMLA, 2002 does not prohibit remand of an accused under the said act to ED custody,” the court said.

During the court of hearing today, ED submitted that the policy was implemented as part of a conspiracy to give wholesale business profit of 12% to certain private companies. It was submitted that such a stipulation was not mentioned in the minutes of meetings of Group of Ministers (GoM).

It was also submitted that there was a conspiracy which was coordinated by Vijay Nair and other individuals along with South Group in order to give extraordinary profit margin to wholesalers. He further said that Vijay Nair was acting on behalf of the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi.

“Members of South group further got control of 9 zones therefore making a serious cartel in the excise business in Delhi,” ED submitted.

On destruction of evidence, ED said that Sisodia destroyed 14 phones out of which only two were recovered. It was submitted that the AAP leader used sim cards and phones which were purchased on the name of others individuals.

“The proceeds of crime is quantified for over Rs. 292 crores. Considering the magnitude of the matter, we need to identify the complete modus operandi. We need to confront other persons who we have summoned. We have issued summons to seven persons. Therefore, we are seeking remand of 10 days,” argued Advocate Zoheb Hossain on behalf of the ED.

On behalf of Sisodia, Senior Advocates Dayan Krishnan, Mohit Mathur and Siddharth Agarwal argued that not even a single penny was traced from the AAP leader which is an essential ingredient for the offence of money laundering.

Calling the process adopted by ED itself illegal, Sisodia’s counsel questioned the timing of Sisodia’s arrest in the money laundering case one day before his bail application was fixed for hearing in the CBI case.

It was submitted that the court cannot ignore that the timing of arrest in itself is mala fide, done only with a purpose to keep a man in “continued detention.”

While passing the order on ED remand, the court adjourned hearing in Sisodia’s bail application for March 21 due to paucity of time.

On February 27, the trial court had remanded Sisodia to CBI's custody for five days. He was again sent to CBI custody for two more days last week.

Sisodia was arrested on February 26 after an interrogation of more than 8 hours. He was named as an accused in the FIR. It is the case of the probe agency that there were alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy for the year 2021-22.

The CBI alleged that Sisodia was arrested as he gave evasive replies and did not cooperate with the investigation despite being confronted with evidence.

CBI had commenced a second round of questioning. Sisodia was earlier questioned on October 17 last year. Chargesheet in the matter was filed on November 25, 2022.

The CBI FIR states that Sisodia and others were instrumental in “recommending and taking decisions” regarding the excise policy 2021-22 “without approval of competent authority with an intention to extend undue favours to the licensee post tender.”

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