Delhi High Court seeks report on Manish Sisodia’s wife, reserves order on bail

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 3

The Delhi High Court on Saturday asked the LNJP Hospital to submit a report on the health condition of former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s ailing wife and reserved its order on his interim bail plea for six weeks in a money laundering case arising from the alleged excise policy scam.

On behalf of Sisodia, senior advocate Mohit Mathur told Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma that pursuant to the court’s directions passed on Friday, the former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister was taken in custody to meet his wife earlier in the day but the latter’s health condition deteriorated and was taken to be LNJP Hospital before he could reach home.

Mathur requested the court to release Sisodia on a temporary basis as he was the sole caretaker of his ailing wife.

On Friday, the HC had directed the Tihar Jail Superintendent to take Sisodia to his residence where he was allowed to meet his ailing wife from 10 AM to 5 PM and listed the interim bail plea for consideration on June 3 after seeking a report from Enforcement Directorate (ED).

During the hearing, ED lawyer Zoheb Hossain opposed the plea for interim bail on grounds of possibility of evidence tampering. He said an FIR has already been registered over “unauthorised removal” of certain documents from the special secretary vigilance’s room.

“In the intervening night of the SC judgement on the services issue, there was unauthorised removal of several documents from the special secretary vigilance’s room and including documents relating to the excise scam. This FIR has been registered. There is material which demonstrates that documents and evidence that are available probably with the department continue to be tampered with,” Hossain said.

Mathur said the Enforcement Directorate was making an “argument of prejudice”.

Hossain also said Sisodia’s wife has been suffering from such a medical condition for the last 20 years and even the earlier pleas for interim bail on identical grounds were withdrawn by the former minister. He said Sisodia held 18 portfolios as a minister and he could not have been the sole caretaker of his wife under such circumstances.

Arrested on March 9, Sisodia is currently in judicial custody in the ED case.

The Delhi Government implemented the policy on November 17, 2021 but scrapped it at the end of September 2022 amid allegations of corruption. (With PTI inputs)