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Tag: Rouse Avenue Court

  • Breaking: No Relief For AAP’s Manish Sisodia, Delhi Court Rejects Second Regular Bail Plea In Excise Policy Case |

    NEW DELHI: In a big setback for jailed former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and Aam Admi Party leader Manish Sisodia, Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court on Tuesday dismissed his second regular bail application in connection with the alleged money laundering probe against him linked to the Excise policy case. Rouse Avenue Court’s Special judge Kaveri Baweja denied bail to Sisodia after reserving the verdict in his bail pleas on April 20. 

    According to news agency ANI, Sisodia’s bail was strongly opposed by both CBI and ED. While opposing Sisodia’s bail plea, the ED argued that the continuation of the excise policy would have made consumers pay hundreds of crores annually. The central agency has also earlier stated that the excise policy would not have been possible without Sisodia.

     

    Delhi | Rouse Avenue court dismisses the second regular bail application of AAP leader Manish Sisodia in Delhi Excise policy case. His bail was opposed by both CBI and ED.

    He had sought bail on the ground of delay in the trial. His earlier bail application was also dismissed by…
    — ANI (@ANI) April 30, 2024

     

    Sisodia had sought bail on the grounds of delay in the trial. His earlier bail application was also dismissed by the court last year. The AAP leader has been in custody since February 2023.

    Sisodia will now approach the Delhi High Court after Rouse Avenue court dismissed his second regular bail application in the Delhi Excise policy case.

    The AAP leader has been denied bail by the trial court, Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court in both ED and CBI cases. The Supreme Court had also dismissed Sisodia’s review petitions against the denial of bail. His curative petitions have also been dismissed.

    The Enforcement Directorate, which is investigating the money laundering allegations linked to the excise policy case, has not yet framed charges against the AAP leader. The ED had earlier informed the apex court that it would complete the trial within six to eight months. 

    Sisodia has been accused of playing a key role in framing the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy, tweaking it for the benefit of particular liquor entities and causing a loss of several hundred crores to the state exchequer. Sisodia was first arrested by the CBI in February 2023, and then by the ED in March that year. 

    In the ED chargesheet, Sisodia has been named as a “key conspirator” in the case, following which he resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28, 2023.

  • Excise Policy Case: BRS Leader K Kavitha’s Judicial Custody Extended Till April 23 |

    New Delhi: The Rouse Avenue Court on Tuesday extended the judicial custody of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC K Kavitha till April 23, 2024, in connection with the excise policy money laundering case. The Special Judge, Kaveri Baweja, allowed the plea of the Enforcement Directorate, stating that she’s made attempts to influence the witnesses, and tampered with evidence and hence her judicial custody should be extended by 14 days.

     

    Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court extends the judicial custody of BRS MLC K Kavitha till April 23, in excise policy money laundering case

    She was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 15, 2024. https://t.co/pU1wbTeCSg
    — ANI (@ANI) April 9, 2024

     

    Advocate Nitesh Rana appeared for K Kavitha and opposed the ED plea, stating that there’s nothing new since she was arrested, there are no new grounds. The application doesn’t mention anything. Meanwhile, the Court had refused to permit K Kavitha to address personally/orally and said she could give her submissions in written form.

    Advocate Zoheb Hossain along with Naveen Kumar Matta and Simon Benjamin appeared for the Enforcement Directorate in the case while Advocates Nitesh Rana, Deepak Rana and Mohit Rao appeared for accused K Kavitha. Recently, the same court had allowed the CBI plea to quiz/examine K Kavitha during judicial custody in the Tihar Jail on any day of the coming week.

    CBI, through the application, sought court permission to interrogate, quiz and record the statement of BRS Leader K Kavitha regarding WhatsApp chats recovered from Buchi Babu’s phone and documents to a Land deal post which 100 crores were allegedly paid to Aam Aadmi Party in kickbacks.

    The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) arrested K. Kavitha MLC, Telangana Legislative Council, on March 15, 2024, in the case of the Delhi Liquor Policy Scam. A search was also conducted at the residence of K. Kavitha in Hyderabad on March 15, 2024. During the search proceedings, the ED officials were obstructed by the relatives and associates of K. Kavitha, said ED through a statement.

    ED investigation revealed that K Kavitha along with others conspired with the top leaders of AAP including Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia to get favours in the Delhi Excise policy formulation and implementation. In exchange for these favours, she was involved in paying Rs 100 Crore to the leaders of AAP.

    Through acts of corruption and conspiracy in the formulation and implementation of Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22, a continuous stream of illegal funds in the form of kickbacks from wholesalers was generated for the AAP. Further, K. Kavitha and her associates were to recover the proceeds of crime paid in advance to AAP and to generate profits or proceeds of crime from this entire conspiracy, stated ED.

    To date, the ED has conducted searches on 245 locations across the country, including Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and other places. 15 people, including Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Vijay Nair from AAP, have been arrested in the case so far.

    ED has filed 1 Prosecution Complaint and 5 Supplementary Complaints in the case so far.

    Further, out of the proceeds of crime generated, assets worth Rs 128.79 crore have been traced so far and have been attached via provisional attachment orders dated January 24, 2023, and July 3, 2023. Both the attachment orders have been confirmed by the adjudicating authority in New Delhi.

    ED has filed its first chargesheet in the case. The agency said it has so far undertaken nearly 200 search operations in this case after filing an FIR taking cognizance of a CBI case that was registered on the recommendation of the Delhi Lieutenant Governor.

    The CBI inquiry was recommended on the findings of the Delhi Chief Secretary’s report filed in July showing prima facie violations of the GNCTD Act 1991, Transaction of Business Rules (ToBR)-1993, Delhi Excise Act-2009, and Delhi Excise Rules- 2010, officials had said.

    The ED and the CBI had alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the Excise Policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived or reduced and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority’s approval. The beneficiaries diverted “illegal” gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection, the probe agencies said.

    As per the allegations, the excise department had decided to refund the earnest money deposit of about Rs 30 crore to a successful tenderer against the set rules. Even though there was no enabling provision, a waiver on tendered licence fees was allowed from December 28, 2021, to January 27, 2022, due to COVID-19, the probe agency said and there was an alleged loss of Rs 144.36 crore to the exchequer. 

  • Arvind Kejriwal Arrest LIVE Updates | Court Sends Delhi CM To 4-Day ED Remand |

    Arvind Kejriwal Arrest LIVE Updates: Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, Arvind Kejriwal, was today produced before the Rouse Avenue Court, following the conclusion of his custodial remand by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). This development comes in the wake of Kejriwal’s arrest in connection with an alleged excise policy-linked money laundering case. While the ED sought seven days remand of the Delhi CM, the court sent Kejriwal to four-day ED custody.

    On the other hand, the Delhi High Court also heard a public interest litigation (PIL) today, which sought Kejriwal’s removal from the post of Chief Minister of the Government of NCT of Delhi. The hearing was presided over by Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora. The court rejected the PIL saying that there is no leagl bar in the case and Kejriwal can continue to function as the Delhi CM. In another case, the Delhi High Court has also issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate in response to a petition filed by Kejriwal challenging his arrest and the ED remand granted by the trial court.

    Sunita Kejriwal, the wife of the embattled Chief Minister, asserted that her husband’s health is not well and he is being harrased by the ED. 

    CM Kejriwal’s arrest and court proceedings LIVE here:

    4.43 pm: ED while seeking remand stated that Data in one mobile phone (belonging to the arrestee’s wife) has been extracted and is being analyzed. However, data from the other 4 digital devices seized during search at Arvind Kejriwal’s premises on 21.03.2024 (belonging to the arrestee himself) are yet to be extracted as the arrestee has sought time to provide password/login credentials after consulting with his lawyers.

    3.50 pm: The Rouse Avenue Court sent the Delhi CM to four-day ED remand. Kejriwal’s ED remand will now end on April 1. 

    3.30 pm: Arvind Kejriwal said in court that the ED has only two missions – two crush him and finish Aam Aadmi Party. Kejriwal said that his name is mentioned only four times in the documents of the ED and CBI. Kejriwal told the court that he was arrested on behalf of some statements that are not enough to arrest even a thief.

    02:43: The ASG SV Raju, representing the Enforcement Directorate (ED), stated that Arvind Kejriwal’s statements have been documented, and he provided evasive responses. ASG remarked that Kejriwal is intentionally refusing to cooperate with their investigation. He informed the Rouse Avenue court that during custody, Arvind Kejriwal did not divulge the passwords, resulting in the lack of access to digital data. The ED further said that, “A CM is not above the law.” According to Zee News TV report, The court has reserved the order regarding Enforcement Directorate’s plea seeking 7 days extension of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s custody remand.

    02:38: It is claimed that there was a scam worth Rs 100 crore… Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal asserted before the Rouse Avenue Court during his ED remand hearing that Justice Sanjiv Khanna stated the money trail has not been identified yet… Kejriwal submits that the motive of the ED is to dismantle the Aam Aadmi Party.

    02:31:  CM Kejriwal says in his defence,”The case was initiated by the CBI two years back…The ED submitted a report spanning 25 thousand pages…Numerous ministers have visited my residence over time… I question why the arrest is solely based on verbal statements.” He is speaking in the Rouse Avenue Court. 

    02:24: “He is not proven guilty in any court,” Arvind Kejriwal says in Rouse Avenue Court.

    02:19: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal says, upon arrival at the Rouse Avenue court, “It is a political conspiracy and the people will give an answer to it.” 

    02:14: ED has requested an extension of seven additional days for the custody of the Delhi CM by remand, says he needs to be confronted with some people linked with excise policy case.

    02:05: Arvind Kejriwal has reached Rouse Avenue Court, and the court hearing has begun. His wife Sunita Kejriwal is also present in the proceeding.

    01:45: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal being brought out of ED office; to be taken to Rouse Avenue Court. 

    VIDEO | “This is a political conspiracy, the public will give a befitting reply,” says Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) in response to a media query on Delhi L-G VK Saxena’s ‘government cannot run from jail’ remark.

    Kejriwal has been brought to Rouse Avenue Court in… pic.twitter.com/q7n2zYuHKb


    — Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) March 28, 2024

    01:30: Delhi High Court rejects PIL seeking removal of Arvind Kejriwal from the post of Chief Minister of Delhi.

    01:00 PM: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will be produced before Rouse Avenue Court at 2 pm today on the expiry of his six days of ED custody.