Who is delaying liquor scam trial? Counsel for probe agency ED, accused spar

A Delhi Court on Wednesday extended till January 20 the judicial custody of AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh in a money laundering case related to the alleged excise scam. Special Judge MK Nagpal also allowed Singh to visit the returning officer to receive his election certificate upon his re-election to the Rajya Sabha on January 12.

Singh and two other AAP candidates are expected to get elected to the Rajya Sabha unopposed given the party's overwhelming dominance in the Delhi assembly.

Meanwhile, the hearing on Wednesday witnessed a spar between the lawyers for the Enforcement Directorate and lawyers for the accused, over a delay in the trial in connection with the alleged scam.

In the given case, the trial gains relevance as the Supreme Court, while denying bail to Sisodia, had granted him the liberty to apply for bail again in three months, in case the trial is delayed.

While the counsel for probe agency ED alleged that the accused raised objections over small issues leading to a delay in proceedings, the counsel for the accused stated the probe agency listed some 'unrelied upon documents'.

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Responding to the allegations, the Enforcement Directorate said, "There will be an unnecessary delay. It's not a big issue, as long as there's disclosure of documents. If the unrelied documents are made an issue, there's already a delay in proceedings."

Meanwhile, advocate Rajat Bhardwaj, appearing for Sanjay Singh, said that the ED was "purposely delaying the trial." He also urged the court to record his statement, pointing out that earlier the court had recorded the ED's statement, saying the defence was trying to delay the trial.

The court also pulled up the Enforcement Directorate for not following its earlier order correctly.

It said when it sought a consolidated list of documents from the main chargesheet and supplementary chargesheet it didn't ask for relied upon and unrelied upon documents to be included in a single list.

"And then you are blaming the accused for the delay," the court remarked.

The court, meanwhile, granted interim bail to co-accused Sarvesh Mishra, a close aide of Singh, and posted his application for regular bail for January 20.

Mishra was named as an accused in the fifth supplementary chargesheet.

The Delhi government implemented the excise policy on November 17, 2021, but scrapped it at the end of September 2022 amid allegations of corruption.

According to the investigating agencies, the profit margin of wholesalers was arbitrarily increased from 5 per cent to 12 per cent under the new policy.