A day before a court hearing on his bail plea, the AAP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday in connection with the 2021-22 Delhi excise policy case.
The ED made the arrest after questioning Sisodia for eight hours inside the Tihar jail as part of its money laundering probe into the alleged irregularities in the 2021-22 excise policy of Delhi, officials said.
The ED began questioning the senior AAP leader and one of the party’s founding members, days after it recorded his statement on Tuesday.
The AAP leader was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26 in the same case and he is currently in judicial custody till March 20. His bail plea will come up for hearing before the Rouse Avenue District Court on Friday.
Sisodia was taken to Tihar jail on Monday after the Rouse Avenue Court sent him to judicial custody till March 20.
ED sources told a news agency that the probe agency has got permission to quiz Sisodia for three days, and it will seek his custodial remand.
The ED on Thursday questioned Sisodia in connection with the alleged kickbacks of Rs 100 crore which the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its leaders reportedly received through hawala channel from the South Group.
Reacting to the arrest of Sisodia by the ED, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a tweet in Hindi said, “Manish was first arrested by the CBI. The CBI did not find any evidence, no money was found in the raid. There is a bail hearing tomorrow. Manish would have been released tomorrow. So, today ED arrested him. They have only one aim – to keep Manish inside at all costs. By creating new fake cases everyday. The public is watching. the public will answer.”
The ED also made another arrest in the case earlier, as it took Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramchandra Pillai into its custody.
The ED, on Thursday, summoned Bharatiya Rashtriya Samiti (BRS) MLC and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha for questioning in the liquor policy case.
The former deputy CM of Delhi was also asked about Arun Pillai and K Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, about their alleged involvement in the case.
The ED, last year, filed its first chargesheet in the case. The agency said it has, so far, undertaken nearly 200 search operations in this case after an FIR was filed, taking cognisance of the CBI case registered on the recommendation of Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena.