Supreme Court grants bail to Manish Sisodia in Delhi liquor policy case

New Delhi| Former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has got a big relief from the Supreme Court in Delhi liquor policy case. The court granted bail to Sisodia in both the ED and CBI cases. Manish Sisodia will have to deposit bail bonds of Rs 10 lakh and two sureties, after which he will be released from jail. The Supreme Court imposed a condition and directed Sisodia to surrender his passport and not influence witnesses. The Supreme Court said that ASG’s statement regarding completion of the trial is contradictory. Sisodia has been in jail since past 18 months. Sisodia’s right to speedy trial has been violated.

While giving its verdict on the bail plea of Manish Sisodia, the Supreme Court said that bail is a rule and jail is an exception. These rules should be kept in mind by the lower court and the High Court. The High Court and the lower court ignored these facts. As far as Manish Sisodia is accused of delaying the trial, he is accused of filing separate applications. He filed 13 applications in CBI case, 14 in ED. All the applications were approved by the trial court. The court refused to accept that the delay in the trial was due to Manish Sisodia.

The Supreme Court said that the lower court had said in its order that the delay in starting the trial due to Manish’s applications was not correct. We do not agree that the trial was delayed due to the applications. In this case, 8 chargesheets have been filed by ED. In such a situation, when the investigation has been completed in July then why has the trial not started. The trial court ignored the Right to Speedy Trial and did not grant bail on merits. We had talked about accumulation on the basis of delay in the order of October last year.