Supreme Court issues notice to ED on third bail plea by Manish Sisodia in Excise Policy case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the response of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to the bail plea filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia in the money laundering case against him in connection with the Delhi excise policy..A bench of Justices BR Gavai, Sanjay Karol and KV Viswanathan issued notice to ED and posted the case for hearing on July 29.The ED was asked to file its response by then.Advocate Vivek Jain appearing for Sisodia told that the trial in the case was moving at snail's pace. "The trial was at snail pace. This court order says that if no fault of Sisodia then I may approach Supreme Court. I have been inside (jail) for 16 months and trial is at same speed as it was in October 2023," Jain said."Issue notice returnable on July 29. We will have this on Monday after 2 weeks," the Court ordered..Manish Sisodia has been in custody since February 26, 2023, in connection with the Delhi excise policy case, being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as well as the ED.The case involves allegations that Delhi government officials tweaked the excise policy to benefit certain liquor sellers in exchange for bribes that were used to fund the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) elections in Goa.Sisodia has filed several bail applications in the matter to no avail.In May, the Delhi High Court agreed with a trial court's April 30 decision to reject one such bail plea in both the ED and CBI cases.In June, the Supreme Court also refused to grant him bail in the money laundering case against him, after the ED said it would file a chargesheet by July 3. The Supreme Court added that Sisodia would be at liberty to revive his bail plea after the ED's chargesheet was filed.He then filed the present bail plea after ED filed the chargesheet in the matter. His first round of bail applications was rejected in 2023. His bail plea in the CBI case was rejected by a trial court on March 31, 2023. On April 28, 2023, the trial court rejected his bail application in the ED case as well.Both the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court upheld these trial court decisions later that year.At the time, the Supreme Court added that Sisodia could file for bail again if the trial progressed at a slow pace.He then filed a second round of bail pleas which also came to be rejected.He then filed this third bail plea after the chargesheet was filed.