New Delhi, Aug 12 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Monday sought the response of the Enforcement Directorate on the plea of Vijay Nair, former communication in charge of the Aam Aadmi Party, seeking bail in connection with alleged money-laundering cases arising out of Delhi Excise Policy scam.
A bench comprising Justice Hrishikesh Roi and Justice S V N Bhatti issued notice to the central agency and sought its response within four weeks.
Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhari appearing for Nair pleaded that he is in jail for 1 year and 10 months so he is also squarely covered under the judgment in which his co-accused and former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was granted bail on the predicate offence.
Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi also appearing for Nair told the court that multiple supplementary chargesheets have been filed against him running into almost 60,000 pages. Singhvi also submitted that the petitioner is in custody for nearly 2 years since he was arrested by the CBI and has been in continuous ED custody forthwith.
Justice SVN Bhatt while issuing notice to the ED said that the petitioner has been in custody for nearly 2 years since he was arrested by the CBI and has been in continuous custody of the ED and CBI since then. The Court issued notice to the ED.
The bench said, “It is submitted that more supplementary chargesheets are likely to be filed by the ED. The Counsel would refer to a recent judgment of this Court (Manish Sisodia) where a co accused was granted bail by this court, where it took into consideration the fact that the said co accused is incarcerated for 17 months.
The court also noted, “It is submitted that the case records run into 50,000 pages and 350 witnesses are yet to be examined. The counsel stated that they deserve the benefit of not continuing in incarceration,” the court held.
The Apex court said that the notice issued by the court should be handed over Dasti (By Hand) through the Standing Counsel of the central agency who is present in the court.
Nair was arrested on November 13, 2022. He challenged the trial court’s July 29 order dismissing his default bail plea.
Earlier, the high court had on July 3, 2023 refused to grant Nair and other co-accused bail in the money laundering case.
The CBI alleged that Nair met some other co-accused, liquor manufacturers and distributors at various hotels in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi for arranging “ill-gotten money through hawala operators” that was given to AAP as kickback in return for favours by the party in Delhi.
