Supreme Court seeks response from CBI, ED in Manish Sisodia bail plea; says medical condition of Sisodia's wife is not "mild"

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the bail plea of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia in the Delhi excise policy scam. .A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Bela M Trivedi and Ujjal Bhuyan also took serious note of the medical condition of Sisodia's wife and asked him to file an interim plea for medical bail."You can file an application for interim bail. Is she in hospital ? It is a progressive disease.. I know about it," Justice Khanna remarked.When Senior Counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Sisodia, told the Court that the medical condition is such that it could result in mild paralysis, Justice Khanna said that he is very much aware of the medical condition cited by the petitioner and it is not "mild" but more serious. "There is 50 percent disability... MRIs shows white plaque," Singhvi said."We are aware of it. It starts from legs and goes up," the bench said."Mild paralysis," Singhvi added."It is not mild. We will ask other side to file a reply. Issue notice in both cases," Justice Khanna said.The matter was then posted for hearing on July 28 for interim directions..Sisodia, who is embroiled in the excise policy scam case, moved the Supreme Court challenging a Delhi High Court orders denying him bail in the cases registered against him by the CBI and the ED. The Delhi High Court had, on July 3, denied bail to Sisodia in the ED case. On May 30, it had rejected Sisodia's bail plea in the CBI case in relation to the same scam..It is alleged that the scam involves officials of the Delhi government conniving to grant liquor licenses to certain traders in exchange for bribes.The central agencies' case is that the excise policy was tweaked and the profit margins changed to benefit certain traders and kickbacks were received in exchange for the same.The ED and the CBI registered cases in relation to the alleged scam after Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena recommended a CBI probe based on a report by the Delhi Chief Secretary. The report claimed that Sisodia violated statutory provisions and notified a policy that had significant financial implications.Although Sisodia was not named in the CBI's chargesheet initially, the CBI filed an additional chargesheet later arraying him as an accused in the case.It is Sisodia's stance that the policy and the changes made in it were approved by the LG and that CBI is now going after the policy decisions of an elected government.According to Sisodia, no money has been traced to him and that the agencies are re-evaluating a liquor policy that was formulated by the elected government and approved by the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Delhi.