Delhi Excise policy case: Court grants permission to Sisodia to open new bank account

NEW DELHI: Delhi's Rouse Avenue court on Friday granted permission to former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to sign documents in relation to opening of a new bank account.

Special judge MK Nagpal allowed Manish Sisodia to sign the documents for opening a new bank account.

His previous bank account has been attached by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in connection with a money laundering case of Delhi excise policy.

An application was moved on his behalf. It was stated that he is sitting MLA from Patparganj and his salary is being deposited in the attached bank account. His previous bank account was at the Bank of Baroda, Shakarpur, Delhi.

Due to the attachment, the family of the accused was finding it difficult to withdraw the money from the same bank account. Therefore he needs to open a new bank account, the application said. The court has granted permission to sign some of the documents by the applicant, advocate Irsha Khan submitted.

Special Public Prosecutor Naveen Kumar Matta urged the court that the details of the new bank account may be provided to the agency. At this point, Manish Sisodia said, "They know everything, except how many chapatis I have been eating."

The matter has been listed on September 22 for scrutiny of documents.

Meanwhile, the court granted some more time to the ED to supply the legible copies of supplementary charge sheets and documents filed along with some of the accused.

Applications were moved by some of the accused stating that the copies of documents were not legible and missing. The supplementary charge sheet as well as documents have been supplied to other accused persons including Manish Sisodia, the court noted.

The ED had alleged that proceeds of crime of around Rs 622 crore had been generated due to the 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."

The 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.

Also, 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 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.

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).