A trial court Friday handed over former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia to Enforcement Directorate for custodial interrogation in excise policy money laundering case till March 17.

The ED had sought ten days of custody but Rouse Avenue Courts’ Special judge M K Nagpal allowed the agency to interrogate the senior AAP leader in custody for a week.

ED lawyers told the court that the excise policy was formulated and implemented out of a “conspiracy” to give “illegal benefits” to certain private companies. The ED said the high wholesale profit margin of 12 per cent to private players was never discussed by the Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Sisodia who was also the Excise Minister. “There was a conspiracy to frame the policy in such a manner so as to ensure illegal benefits to some persons,” ED said. Accused AAP spokesperson Vijay Nair coordinated the conspiracy along with others for implementing the policy, it charged.

The ED told the court that the proceeds of crime has been quantified over ₹292 crore. Vijay Nair met BRS Member of Legislative Council K Kavitha who is supposed to appear before the ED for questioning, the agency said. Butchibabu Gorantla, who is out on bail, told ED that Sisodia and Kavitha had reached a political understanding.

ED also charged that Sisodia destroyed mobile phones to kill evidence in the case and made false statements.

Sisodia was represented by a battery of senior advocates Dayan Krishnan, Mohit Mathur and Siddharth Aggarwal in the court, which was packed at the time of hearing. The Delhi Lieutenant Governor must have examined excise policy after accepting it, his lawyers told the judge to oppose ED’s plea for custodial interrogation.

‘How a PMLA case?’

They also stated that the policy making passes through several layers of scrutiny and questioned ED’s locus standi to look into policy making in a prevention of money laundering act (PMLA) case. “How can ED look into policy making in money-laundering case,” wondered the former Delhi Deputy CM’s counsel. They said that the agency has not found a single penny from Sisodia’s house and the case is based on hearsay.

Sisodia was arrested by the ED on Thursday evening in the Tihar jail, where he is languishing in the same case after the CBI arrested him in the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy for 2021-22.

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