New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today termed the Supreme Court verdict granting bail to former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia as a "victory of truth". Mr Sisodia was granted bail nearly 18 months after his arrest in the alleged liquor policy case.
Reacting to the Supreme Court judgment, AAP leader Raghav Chadha said, "The entire country is happy today as Manish Sisodia, the hero of the Delhi education revolution, got bail. I express my heartfelt gratitude to the Hon'ble Supreme Court. Manish ji was kept behind bars for 530 days. His crime was that he gave the children of the poor a better future. Dear children, your Manish uncle is coming back."
The Supreme Court's verdict, delivered by Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan, said it would be a "travesty of justice" to continue Mr Sisodia's incarceration without significant progress in the trial. "Incarceration of 18 months... Trial not having even commenced and the appellant has been deprived of the right to a speedy trial. The trial court and High Court ought to have given due weightage to this," Justice Gavai remarked.
"Manish Sisodia's bail is a victory of truth," Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann wrote on X.
"This verdict is a slap on the Centre's dictatorship. He was in jail for 17 months. His life was destroyed in those months. He could have worked for the education of children during that time," AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said.."We hope that other leaders of the party, Arvind Kejriwal and Satyendar Jain, will also get bail and justice. I bow down before the Supreme Court for this verdict."
Mr Sisodia, who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26 last year, has been at the centre of a controversy surrounding the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) subsequently arrested him on March 9, 2023, in connection with a money laundering case that stemmed from the CBI's First Information Report (FIR). Mr Sisodia resigned from his ministerial post two days later on February 28, 2023.
"Satyamev Jayate," Delhi Education minister Atishi posted on X.
The Supreme Court's decision to grant bail followed intense deliberations, during which the top court questioned the investigative agencies on the timeline for the conclusion of the trial. With a staggering 493 witnesses listed in the cases against Mr Sisodia, the court pressed the agencies to provide a clearer picture of when the trial might realistically conclude.
In a previous hearing, the court expressed concern over the protracted nature of the legal process. "Where do you see the end of the tunnel in these cases?" the court had asked.
The case reached the Supreme Court after his bail pleas were dismissed by the Delhi High Court on May 21 and by a trial court on April 30.