Supreme Court removes Sisodia’s bail conditions over appearance before probe agencies

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday relaxed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia’s bail conditions in the alleged liquor policy irregularities cases and removed the conditions to mark his attendance twice a week before the probe agencies. However, the top court has directed him to attend the trial regularly.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan said that it did not find the condition that requires the petitioner to appear twice before the probe agencies are necessary and ordered, “the said condition is deleted”. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and advocate Vivek Jain appeared for Sisodia.

Manish Sisodia, in his plea, has sought relaxation of bail conditions that make him mark his attendance every Monday and Thursday at the police station. Senior Advocate Abhishek M Singhvi appeared for Sisodia and said that Sisodia is a respectable person and has already appeared 60 times.

He also apprised the court that no such condition was imposed for any other accused in the matter. He also sought a shorter date for the hearing. The court said that it would decide on the application on the next date fixed for the hearing.

Earlier, the top court granted bail to Sisodia, underscoring his deep roots in society and no possibility of fleeing away and observing that the conclusion of the trial would take a long time as there are 493 witnesses, thousands of pages of documents and over a lakh pages of digitized documents.

However, the top court imposed various conditions on Sisodia including surrendering his passport with the Special Court and reporting to the Investigating Officer every Monday and Thursday between 10-11 am. The top court also directed that Sisodia should not make any attempt either to influence the witnesses or to tamper with the evidence.

In February 2023, Sisodia was arrested by the CBI for alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of now-scrapped Delhi’s new excise policy. The policy was withdrawn amid allegations of foul play by the opposition. Sisodia is currently in judicial custody.

According to the CBI, Sisodia had played the most vital role in the criminal conspiracy and he had been deeply involved in the formulation as well as the implementation of the said policy to ensure the achievement of the objectives of the said conspiracy. (ANI)