Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, currently lodged in Tihar jail in connection with the Delhi excise policy scam case, has filed a plea in a Delhi court seeking interim bail to campaign for the party in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Mr. Sisodia’s bail plea will be heard by Special Judge (Prevention of Corruption Act) Kaveri Baweja of the Rouse Avenue courts on April 20.
Excise policy scam: SC rejects AAP leader Manish Sisodia’s curative petitions
In jail since February 2023, Mr. Sisodia is one of the several high-profile AAP leaders who have been arrested in connection with the excise policy case, which is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also probing a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.
The CBI as well as the ED have alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the excise policy. Mr. Sisodia’s bail plea in both the CBI and ED cases were earlier rejected by the trial court, the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court. In March, he moved fresh bail applications before the trial court, which are at the hearing stage at present.
Apart from Mr. Sisodia, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is also in judicial custody in the excise policy case. AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh spent around six months in jail in connection with the same case and was granted bail by the Supreme Court on April 2.
