There are “contradictions” between the cases being prosecuted separately by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with Delhi’s now-scrapped excise policy, the Supreme Court observed on Friday while granting bail to one of the accused in the case.
Shooting down ED’s objections to the bail, the top court added that it cannot allow the indefinite detention of people at a pre-trial stage, especially when the federal agency has been adding new accused by filing charge sheet after charge sheet.
“You cannot keep people behind bars for years at a pre-trial stage. It’s a pre-trial detention, after all. We cannot allow this to go on indefinitely... We still don’t know where this will go... how many more people will be brought in,” a bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and SV Bhatti told additional solicitor general (ASG) SV Raju.
The court granted bail to Benoy Babu, who was behind bars for 13 months in relation to the money-laundering case registered by ED after CBI started investigating the alleged corruption and irregularities in the now-scrapped excise policy introduced by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in November 2021.
“You cannot have someone behind bars without having a trial. Normally, the trial should be concluded within two years,” the bench observed, allowing Babu’s bail plea. It further flagged that the trial in the case has not begun yet since charges are yet to be framed.
The bench noted in its order that Babu, a regional manager with liquor company Pernod Ricord, has been in jail since November 10, 2022, when he was arrested by ED.
At the same time, the court highlighted that Babu, who has been accused by ED of active involvement and direct association with laundering the proceeds of crime in alleged corruption linked to the excise policy, has not even been made an accused by CBI in the predicate case.
“There seems to be contradiction between what CBI is alleging and what ED is alleging... Benoy Babu is not an accused in CBI’s charge sheet. It is stated that Babu is a prosecution witness in that case,” the bench noted.
On his part, Raju had sought to persuade the bench that Babu was not just an employee of the liquor company, and that he had an active role to play in the formulation of the impugned policy which aimed at illicit monetary gains for the public officials and wholesale dealers.
Countering this, senior counsel Harish Salve, who was representing Babu, highlighted that his client has not even been made an accused by CBI, let alone be called an active participant in the formation of the controversial policy. Salve added that it is an admitted case of ED that Babu met one of the architects of the “South Group” after the policy was already uploaded on the Delhi government’s website. The so-called “South Group” was awarded nine retail zones in Delhi and has been alleged to be complicit in the formation of the policy.
The senior counsel also referred to certain parts of Supreme Court’s judgment on October 30 , when the court refused bail to former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in the alleged excise policy scam, pointing out that Babu could not have been said to have played any role in formation of the policy.
Convinced by Salve’s submissions on the grant of bail, the court said that it will release Babu on bail considering “13 months are long enough”, and that CBI has chosen not to make him an accused in the case.
The reprieve for Babu came two days after the Delhi trial court denied interim medical bail to him, citing the gravity of charges.
“Allegations suggest his active involvement and direct association with laundering proceeds of crime generated through the criminal activities in the scheduled offences case of the CBI,” the trial court noted in its order on Tuesday.
The Delhi excise policy or the Delhi liquor policy was rolled out in November 2021, marking the exit of the government from retail sales of alcohol and allowing private companies to bid for licenses. The objective, the Delhi government said, was to improve the buying experience for citizens by allowing market competition to raise standards.
However, the policy was scrapped in August 2022, soon after Delhi’s lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena asked for an investigation.
The AAP and the Delhi government rejected the charges, alleging it to be a ploy by the Union government to target its rival.
ED on December 2 filed its first charge sheet against AAP MP Sanjay Singh, levelling charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the alleged excise policy scam case. It was the fifth supplementary charge sheet filed in the case, which originated from the CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in framing and implementing the excise policy for 2021-22.
Singh, 51, was arrested by the federal agency on October 4. He is the second most high-profile AAP leader to be arrested by ED after former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, and the agency’s 15th arrest in total.
By its judgment on October 30, the justice Khanna bench rejected the bail plea of Sisodia, observing that the charge against him of tweaking the now-scrapped excise policy of 2021 that caused wholesalers to ostensibly earn a windfall of ₹338 crore during the 10 months that the policy remained operational was “tentatively” established.
At the time, the bench also directed CBI and ED to honour their assurance of completing the trial within six to eight months. Sisodia, on November 29, filed a review petition against the judgment denying him bail in the case.
The plea is yet to be considered.
(With inputs from agencies)