New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday (December 2) sought the response of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on a plea filed by former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia challenging a trial court order taking cognisance of a chargesheet filed by the ED in an excise policy-linked money laundering case.
Sisodia has sought quashing of the trial court order taking cognisance of the ED chargesheet, submitting that he was a public servant when the alleged offence was committed and the trial court took cognisance of the chargesheet in the absence of any sanction for his prosecution in the case.
High Court will hear Sisodia’s plea on December 20
Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri, hearing Sisodia’s plea issued notice to the ED and sought its response and fixed the hearing into the matter on December 20, when former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s similar plea is also listed for hearing.
Kejriwal recently moved High Court with similar plea
Kejriwal recently had had also moved the High Court challenging the order of the trial court taking cognisance of a supplementary chargesheet filed by the ED against him. The former Delhi chief minister has sought a direction to set aside the order of the trial court, submitting that when the alleged offence was committed, he was a public servant and the cognisance of the chargesheet was taken by the trial court in the absence of any sanction to prosecute him in the case.
Sanction in CBI’s corruption case to prosecute Kejriwal enough for ED matter too, Delhi court was told
Kejriwal had also moved the trial court seeking a copy of the requisite sanction to prosecute him in the excise policy-linked money laundering case. Responding to Kejriwal’s plea before the trial court, the ED recently submitted that sanction obtained to prosecute former Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal in the corruption case related to the alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-defunct excise policy was broad enough to try him in the related excise policy-linked money laundering case as well.
Both Kejriwal and Sisodia are currently out on bail in the money laundering case.
