Delhi Rouse Avenue Court extended judicial custody of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia till April 3 in the CBI case on Monday.
CBI had sought extension of the judicial custody by 14 days saying the investigation is pending. Special judge M.K. Nagpal extended Sisodia's judicial custody. The bail petition in the matter is set to heard on Tuesday.
Sisodia was presented before the Court virtually since he is on Enforcement Directorate (ED) remand till March 22. Delhi court on Friday extended the ED custody by five days.
While extending the custody, Court directed that the interrogation during the remand period should be conducted in places having CCTV coverage.
Earlier while seeking the custody extension last week, the ED had claimed before the Delhi court that the AAP leader Sisodia was involved in "large-scale destruction of digital evidence to impede investigation" into the Delhi excise policy case. He had destroyed 14 phones, ED said in its application.
The agency said that the major recommendations that ultimately formed the basis for the Excise Policy 2021-22, were not decided in the group of ministers meetings and instead "imported from external sources".
ED had arrested Sisodia on March 9 in the Tihar Jail. Earlier CBI had arrested him on February 26 in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case.
The agency alleged that Sisodia had withheld information which is in his "exclusive knowledge" and "extremely relevant to the investigation".
During the one year period of the liquor case, Sisodia destroyed around 14 phones or IMEIs of which only one phone was recovered by the CBI, it added.
ED alleged that the "pro-active destruction of evidence" led to the sole inference that Sisodia made "conscious efforts to destroy evidence of the offence of money laundering."
(With PTI inputs)
