Court sends Manish Sisodia to jail till March 20

New Delhi: Former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia landed in Tihar jail here on Monday shortly after a CBI court remanded the senior AAP leader to 14-day judicial custody till March 20 in the excise scam case amid an escalating political slugfest. Sisodia will spend Holi in jail after the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) said it did not require his custody for now.

His bail plea hearing is expected to come up on March 10. Sisodia, who joins his former Cabinet colleague Satyendar Jain in jail, was produced before special judge M K Nagpal on the expiry of his seven-day custodial interrogation allowed by the court earlier after his arrest on February 26. Jain has been lodged in Tihar jail since May last year following his arrest in a money laundering case by the Enforcement Directorate(ED). During the hearing, the CBI also accused supporters of the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) of 'politicising' the matter.

It had arrested Sisodia in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped liquor policy for 2021-22. The court allowed Sisodia to carry the Bhagavad Gita, spectacles, medicine etc. to jail while directing the Tihar jail authorities to consider his request for being allowed to do Vipassana meditation. A Tihar jail official said Sisodia was brought to prison following the court order and he will be lodged in jail number-1 after the completion of due formalities. As the AAP stepped up its attack on the BJP and also maintained that the CBI had no grounds to seek Sisodia's further interrogation, the Congress sought to clear the air over its stand on his arrest, asserting that the allegations in the Delhi excise policy case are serious and must be probed.

The Congress, which has largely kept its distance from the arrest of Sisodia, however, said its stand on misuse of central agencies is clear that they are used against the Opposition in most of the cases. Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate told reporters that the Congress was "not at all confused" about its stance on Sisodia's arrest and that its stand is clear. She also said the AAP does not utter a word when central agencies act against other Opposition leaders, be it from those in Congress, those in Bihar or Maharashtra. AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj on Sunday said the Congress never stands by the Opposition and engages in a war of words with the BJP merely to "fool" the country. At the CBI court, the counsel for the investigating agency submitted it was not seeking his custody right now which it may do later. "An application to send the accused to judicial custody has been filed. It is submitted that the CBI custody is no longer required and the same may be sought later, if required. In view of submission made, the accused is sent to JC till March 20," the court said.