A Delhi Court on Friday remanded Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia to Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody till March 17 in the Delhi excise policy case. Special Judge MK Nagpal pronounced the order after hearing the arguments of Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan who represented Manish Sisodia and Zoheb Hossain, who represented ED.
Accusing former Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia of having remained untrue in his statements during interrogations, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had sought 10-day custody of former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who was arrested in connection with the Delhi excise policy scam. The ED said that his remand was necessary to trace the money trail in the scam.
Sisodia was produced before the Rouse Avenue District Court in Delhi.
“We need to interrogate and unearth the entire scam. We want to unearth the entire modus operandi. We need to confront him with some other people. Therefore we need custody of 10 days,that there was a conspiracy behind framing the excise policy, ” The ED told the court
Explaining why ED was seeking the AAP leader’s remand, the investigating agency’s counsel said that it would want to examine the money trail. The ED also said that Sisodia has “remained untrue and has given answers contrary to the statement given by independent people”
On Thursday, the ED arrested Sisodia in Tihar Jail after quizzing him for about eight hours. The ED has questioned Sisodia in connection with the alleged kickbacks of Rs 100 crore which the AAP party/leaders received through hawala channel from South Group. He was also asked about Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Pillai and K. Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26 and later remanded to judicial custody by Rouse Avenue District Courts on March 6. His bail plea is also pending before the court The ED also made another arrest in the case earlier, taking Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai into its custody.
Meanwhile, the court has listed Manish Sisodia’ bail application hearing in CBI case on March 21.