Thinking of adding Aam Aadmi Party as accused in Delhi Excise Policy Scam: CBI, ED tell Supreme Court

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday told the Supreme Court that they were thinking of adding the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as an accused in the Delhi excise policy scam case..Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju made submissions to this effect before a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti, which was hearing bail pleas filed by AAP leader and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.During the course of the hearing, Justice Khanna also said that a person cannot be kept behind bars indefinitely merely because the hearing on charges before the trial court has not commenced."You cannot keep somebody behind ad infinitum because you are not confident as to when you can argue on charges. Because once the chargesheet is filed, you cannot keep him behind like this without ... ," Justice Khanna remarked.This prompted ASG Raju to respond by saying,"We are contemplating making the AAP an accused ... I have instructions." The bench then asked the ASG to clarify on Tuesday whether the offences and charges under the CBI and ED cases would be different in the event that the AAP is made an accused.The scam involves allegations that Delhi government officials had connived to grant liquor licenses to certain traders in exchange for bribes. The accused officials are alleged to have tweaked the excise policy to benefit certain liquor sellers.The Delhi High Court had earlier denied bail to Sisodia in the case, prompting the AAP leader to move the Supreme Court for relief.Notably, in the hearing on October 4, the bench questioned why AAP was not made an accused in the case if the party is alleged to be the beneficiary of the alleged money laundering.A day later, on October 5, the Supreme Court also sought to know from the CBI and ED whether there was any evidence of bribery that could implicate Manish Sisodia in the alleged scam.The bench had also remarked that merely because lobby groups or pressure groups had called for a certain policy shift, that would not by itself imply that corruption or a crime has taken place unless there is an element of bribery involved..During the hearing today, Justice Khanna at the outset asked the ASG to respond to its queries raised during the last hearing. The Court also clarified that it was only asking questions and that these queries were not the conclusions of the Court. "These were not conclusions, I do not know why people feel they were ... In an interactive court, we ask questions for our understanding," the Court remarked..The ASG then read from the chargesheets to argue that no inputs were taken from excise officials before fixing the profit margin under the policy at twelve percent. "This shows it was reduced after meeting at Oberoi (hotel) with South Group," the ASG said.He added that the Punjab government has still not given the agencies permission to conduct probes against certain wholesalers.Justice Khanna then posed a question as to whether multiple agencies would be probing all cases. "If a bribe is caught red-handed? Will PMLA apply?" he asked. When the ASG replied in the affirmative, the bench disagreed saying that such an act of taking a bribe would only amount to the generation (not creation) of money. A separate offence would be needed for the ED to swoop in, the Court added. "Generation is after creation. Anything must exist. Possession is after creation. Generation cannot be in the air. After it, somebody must have possession. It cannot be simplicitor. Here, there is projection as wholesale profit," the ASG replied, while contending there was money laundering by Sisodia in the matter..The ASG also said that a proper example has to be set in the instant case, given who was involved and the substantial evidence unearthed."There is a broader case of evidence tampering. Tampering is one of the grounds of prime facie not granting bail. Second, there was arm twisting. Some were forced to give up licenses," he said, while opposing Sisodia's bail pleas. .Sisodia's counsel, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi was asked to be ready to defend questions on allegations of cartelisation, fixed profit margins and the alleged sending of proceeds of a crime to the AAP. The hearing will continue on Tuesday at 2 pm.