New Delhi: The Supreme Court will pronounce judgment on October 30 on the bail plea of former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who was arrested in the Delhi liquor policy scam. On October 17, the Supreme Court reserved the order on the bail plea of Sisodia.
During the hearing, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Sisodia, had submitted before a bench comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti that there was no allegation of bribery against his client in the CBI predicate offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Singhvi had stressed that if there is no predicate offence, ED can't be there and the bribe in connection with the modification of the liquor policy about airport licences, is not part of the predicate offence.
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Justice Khanna had asked additional solicitor general SV Raju, representing the CBI and ED, if it is not part of the predicate offence that this bribe was paid, then “you may be in difficulty in proving PMLA”. The bench further queried if you had said a bribe of Rs 2.2 crore was paid for tweaking the policy, yes. “But you cannot create a predicate offence in your PMLA case. We cannot go on an assumption. Whatever protection is given in the law will be fully extended”, observed the bench.
Raju argued that as per Section 66 (2) of the PMLA, the ED can inform the jurisdictional police about any new information. The bench said it has not been done, therefore the court will not go on presumption. Singhvi contended that the generation of proceeds of crime occurs only in the predicate offence as per the Vijay Madanlal Chaudhary judgment. After hearing detailed submissions, the apex court reserved its order.
