Sisodia was produced before special judge MK Nagpal on expiry of his seven-day custodial interrogation the court had earlier allowed.
Manish Sisodia. (Creative Commons)
Former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, arrested in the Delhi liquor policy scam, will be lodged in Tihar jail No 1 after a court remanded him in judicial custody till 20 March.
Sisodia was produced before special judge MK Nagpal earlier on Monday, 6 March, on the expiry of his seven-day custodial interrogation period. The CBI told the court that it did not require the custody of the senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader for now.
A jail official said Sisodia was brought to Tihar following the court order and he will be lodged in jail number-1 after completing the formalities.
Meanwhile, the AAP said the CBI had no grounds to seek Sisodia’s further interrogation in the excise policy case.
“There was no hearing on his bail plea. The court had to consider two options — either send him to judicial custody or extend his police custody. The CBI had no questions, no grounds to seek his interrogation. They have no documentary evidence,” AAP national spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj claimed.
Attacking the BJP, he said its spokespersons have been alleging on TV debates that the excise policy case is an open-and-shut case and showing fake documents to claim that there was a scam.
“If they have evidence, why don’t they hand it over to the CBI,” the AAP leader asked.
The court allowed Sisodia to carry the Bhagavad Gita, spectacles and medicines, etc, to jail and directed the Tihar jail authorities to consider his request to be allowed to do Vipassana meditation.
“Everyone knows that he likes to write. He has also written a book Shiksha that is widely popular and is read by people to know about Delhi’s education revolution. He has been a practitioner of Vipassana and the court has asked the jail superintendent to consider his request. It is a good time to work on oneself,” Bharadwaj said.
He said the court will hear Sisodia’s bail plea on March 10.
“If he is granted bail, his judicial custody will end,” the AAP spokesperson added.
Sisodia was arrested on 26 February evening by the CBI after questioning him for around eight hours. On 27 February, a special CBI court in Delhi remanded him in the custody of the central agency for five days till 4 March.
A bail plea by Sisodia was refused by the Supreme Court on 28 February observing that just because the incident happened in Delhi, Sisodia cannot come to the apex court directly as he has his remedies before the trial court concerned as well as the Delhi High Court.
On the same day, Sisodia and Satyendar Jain — who was arrested 10 months ago on a money laundering charge by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) — resigned from the Arvind Kejriwal Cabinet.
One of the accusations against Sisodia is that he colluded with the so-called “South Group” to tailor the Delhi excise policy to their requirements.
According to the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the South Group paid the AAP leaders ₹100 crore in kickbacks.
The South Group, according to the ED, comprised BRS MLC K Kavitha, YSRCP MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, his son Raghava Reddy and others.
Earlier, on 22 and 23 February, the ED had questioned the former Chartered Accountant of K Kavitha, Butchibabu Gorantla, to uncover more details of the South Group.
During questioning, the ED mainly focused on Gorantla’s association with the members of South Group in reportedly paying kickbacks to AAP leaders.
The ED officials also gathered information about Sarath Chandra Reddy, who was allegedly controlling the affairs of five retail zone licences owned by his three entities — TCL, Avantika and Organomix — through Abhishek Boinpally and Chandan Reddy.
Butchibabu Gorantla was among various persons and different stakeholders — including the approver Dinesh Arora, AAP media coordinator Vijay Nair, Abhishek Boinpally, and Arjun Pandey — who reportedly attended meetings held in May and June 2021 in Gauri Apartments, near Claridges Hotel in Delhi, and at Hotel ITC Kohenur in Hyderabad.
With the help of information already mentioned in the ED prosecution complaint filed before the court in New Delhi earlier, the investigative agency tried to know more about the deal and the understanding between Kavitha and AAP wherein kickbacks were paid to the tune of ₹100 crore.
Kavitha is said to have got access to the Delhi liquor business specifically through stakes in IndoSpirits of another accused, Sameer Mahendru, at Okhla Industrial Area in New Delhi, the ED said in its prosecution complaint.
Ramachandran Pillai is said to have represented Kavitha in IndoSpirits. He became a partner in IndoSpirits on her behalf, the ED added in that complaint.
Further, it was mentioned that he arranged funds for the investment that was required on paper to become a partner, adding that he attended a meeting at Oberoi Maidens along with Kavitha and others.
(With PTI inputs)
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