Manish Sisodia walks out of Tihar after 17 months

Satya Prakash

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 9

Noting that right to speedy trial is a fundamental right of an accused, the Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia, who has been in jail for more than 17 months in corruption and money laundering cases linked to the Delhi excise policy “scam”.

• Editorial: Sisodia’s bail

Not a game of snakes and ladders

Due to long incarceration… appellant deprived of his right to speedy trial…life and liberty. Sending him to trial court (again for bail) will be making him play a game of ‘snakes and ladders’. SC Bench

“We find that, on account of a long period of incarceration running for around 17 months and the trial even not having been commenced, the appellant has been deprived of his right to a speedy trial… In a matter pertaining to the life and liberty of a citizen which is one of the most sacrosanct rights guaranteed by the Constitution, a citizen cannot be made to run from pillar to post,” said a Bench led by Justice BR Gavai, which had reserved its verdict on Sisodia’s bail pleas on August 6. The former Delhi Deputy CM walked out of Tihar in the evening. “In our view, keeping the appellant behind bars for an unlimited period of time in the hope of speedy completion of trial would deprive (him of) his fundamental right to liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution,” it said.

Ordering his release on a personal bail bond of Rs 10 lakh and two sureties in the like amount, the Bench asked him not to influence witnesses and tamper with evidence; surrender his passport; and report to the investigating officer every Monday and Thursday from 10 to 11 am. The Bench, however, turned down Additional Solicitor General SV Raju’s request to restrain Sisodia from visiting Delhi Secretariat as it did when releasing Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on a 21-day interim bail in May this year.

The Bench, which also included Justice KV Viswanathan, rejected the preliminary objection raised by the CBI and the ED that wanted Sisodia to approach the trial court first for bail.

The Bench refused to buy the apprehensions expressed by the probe agencies regarding the possibility of tampering with evidence, saying the case largely depended on documentary proof already seized by the prosecution. Noting that Sisodia had deep roots in the society, it said there was no possibility of him fleeing the country and not being available to face the trial. The matter relates to alleged money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi Government’s excise policy for 2021-22. Sisodia was arrested by the CBI on February 26, 2023. The ED arrested him in a laundering case on March 9, 2023, after questioning him in Tihar Jail.

Sisodia, who was denied bail by the SC in October 2023, had sought to revive his petitions in the excise policy scam-related corruption and laundering cases, contending he had been in custody for 17 months and the trial didn’t make any progress since rejection of his bail by the SC. The court said, “There is not even the remotest possibility of the trial being concluded in the near future in view of the fact that 493 witnesses and thousands of pages of documents are to be examined.”