After 7-days CBI custody, the Delhi court sends Manish Sisodia to judicial custody till March 20
On Monday, the Delhi court remanded Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and ex-Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to judicial custody till March 20 in the case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleging corruption relating to excise policy for the year 2021-22.
Special Judge M K Nagpal of the Rouse Avenue Courts ordered: “An application to send the accused to judicial custody has been filed. It is submitted that police custody is no longer required and the same may be sought later if required. Given the submission, the accused is sent to judicial custody till March 20.”
Sisodia had moved an application seeking spectacles, Bhagwad Geeta, a diary, and a pen inside the prison, which was also allowed by the court on Monday.
The counsel appearing for the central agency contended that the AAP leaders are politicizing the matter and witnesses are “terrified“.
The court had, on March 4, extended Sisodia’s CBI custody for two days and listed his bail plea for March 10. In the last two days, the CBI questioned him with key witnesses — former excise commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna and former excise department secretary C Arvind — in this case, who recorded their statements in front of a magistrate.
The CBI counsel said: “We are not seeking custody right now. But we may do so in the future. Their supporters and the media are politicizing the matter.”
“Witnesses are terrified. Media is giving political colour,” it added.
Representing Sisodia, Senior Advocate Mohit Mathur showed displeasure over CBI’s argument. “I am appalled by a submission like this. Are they scared of the media?” he questioned.
However, the court said that the media could not be stopped from covering the matter and as long as protests, etc, are carried out peacefully, the court will not be concerned.
While addressing the court, the AAP leader had earlier said that the CBI was repeatedly asking the same questions, which is mental harassment.
“They are not using third degree. But sitting for eight to nine hours and answering the same questions repeatedly, that too is mental harassment,” he told the court.
The court had also directed the CBI to conduct his medical exams at regular intervals.
The agency arrested Sisodia on February 26 after an interrogation of more than 8 hours. He was named as an accused in the FIR. It is the case of the probe agency that there were alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy for the year 2021-22.
[With Inputs from IANS]
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Corrupt politicians getting persecuted then it is vendetta / discriminative treatment….India is strange & its citizens
Looks like we are moving towards different treatments during interrogation to be determined by the accused, the type of questions, the number of hours of questioning, etc. The so called respectable accused with adequate money should be treated as guests with all the comforts they are used to in life. A thief is thief, the stealing methods may be different, in absence of fear of law they all will flourish. How can there be a difference between a Politician, a business tycoon and a gangster dacoit when all of them commit the same crime. All the top politicians have in different ways enriched themselves or their relatives with MODI the sole exception.