Delhi: Sisodia produced in court physically, court directs officials to supply copy of “manhandling” day CCTV footage to him

New Delhi [India]: Delhi’s Former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia was produced physically in the Rouse Avenue court for the hearing of a money laundering case related to the Delhi excise policy. The court had directed him to appear physically.

Special judge M K Nagpal on Wednesday directed concerned officials to supply a copy of CCTV footage of the day of the alleged manhandling of Manish Sisodia to him in a pen drive. An application alleging manhandling by police was moved on behalf of Manish Sisodia.

The court has also directed the jail authorities to file a detailed medical report of accused Amit Arora who has been hospitalized pursuant to the order of May 27, 2023. He has been in hospital since then.

The court directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to supply copies of Hard discs of documents to the accused persons who have not been provided with them.

The deficient/missing copies are to be supplied to the accused.

The matter is listed on August 25 for further proceedings.

The supplementary charge sheet as well as documents have been supplied to accused persons including Manish Sisodia, the court noted.

An application was also moved to seek to place on record the CCTV footage of accused Amandeep Dhall’s interrogation and his movements during ED custody to preserve and place on record.

The court said that the CCTV is being preserved pursuant to the order of March 2, 2023.
The ED filed this supplementary charge sheet on May 4.

The ED had alleged that a proceed of a crime of around Rs. 622 crore has been generated due to activities of the present accused Manish Sisodia.

Sisodia was arrested by the ED in this case on March 9. Earlier he was arrested by the CBI on February 26. He is the 29th accused arrested in this case.

While dismissing his bail, Rouse Avenue Court had stated, “This case of economic offences having serious repercussions upon the general public and society at large as the evidence collected during investigation speaks volumes of his involvement in the commission of the said offence”

Court also noted that some evidence is also alleged to have surfaced during the investigation to show that some part of the kickback or bribe amount received from South lobby was spent or utilized in connection with the election campaign of the AAP in Goa and some cash payments through hawala channels are alleged to have been sent to Goa for bearing the said expenses and even some fake invoices are alleged to have been created as a cover-up for the cash amounts transferred through hawala channels.

It was stated that the above cash transfers were made as per instructions of the co­accused Vijay Nair, who was the representative of the applicant and the AAP and also the Media in-charge of AAP and looking after the work related to said elections and he also roped in a company named M/S Chariot Productions Media Pvt. Ltd.

owned by the co­accused Rajesh Joshi to do the election-related advertising work and other jobs for the party during said elections, noted the court.

Thus, in view of the above background, the serious nature of the allegations made and the role played by the applicant in the above criminal conspiracy, his connection with the activities relating to the generation or acquisition and use etc.

above proceeds of crime within the meaning of Section 3 of the PMLA and the oral and documentary evidence collected in support of the same and as placed for the perusal of the court, this court is of the considered opinion that even if the rigours and restrictions contained U/S 45 of the PMLA are viewed and construed reasonably, the prosecution has still been able to show a genuine and prima facie case for the involvement of the applicant in the commission of the alleged offence of money laundering.

Sisodia was arrested by the CBI earlier in its ongoing investigation of a case related to alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD).