Excise Policy Case: Delhi Court Sends AAP's Manish Sisodia to 7-Day ED Remand

The Enforcement Directorate, which arrested Sisodia on 9 March, had sought his 10-day custody.

Image for representation. 

(Photo: Namita Chauhan/The Quint)

A Delhi Court on Friday, 10 March, sent Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia to Enforcement Directorate remand till 17 March in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.

The ED, which arrested Sisodia on 9 March, had sought his 10-day custody.

During the hearing on Friday, Sisodia's lawyer slammed the central agency for for considering arrest as a right without going through the due process of law.

"It has become a fashion these days that the agencies take arrests as a right. It's time for the courts to come down heavily on this sense of entitlement,"his lawyer Dayan Krishna said in the special court.

ED Arrest: The ED arrested the former deputy chief minister of Delhi after questioning him for two days regarding the excise policy case, NDTV reported. 

This comes as a further blow to the embattled leader, who has been attempting to secure bail in a CBI court over the last few days. 

Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court on 6 March had sent Delhi's former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to judicial custody in Tihar jail till 20 March, in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.

CBI Arrest: The CBI had arrested the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader after questioning him for over seven hours on 26 February.

Nine senior Opposition leaders wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Sunday, 5 March, condemning what they termed the "witch-hunt" of AAP leader Manish Sisodia and "the blatant misuse of central agencies against the members of the opposition."

(With inputs from Bar and Bench)