Delhi Excise Policy: Court grants bail to Indospirits MD Sameer Mahandru, others

A Special Court dealing with the Delhi Excise Policy case against Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and others has granted bail to five persons, including Indospirits Managing Director Sameer Mahandru.[CBI v. Kuldeep Singh & Ors] .Special Judge MK Nagpal also granted regular bail to excise department officials Kuldeep Singh and Narender Singh, businessman and partner in Indospirits Arun Pillai and India Ahead News Managing Director Gautam Mootha. .Mahandru was also allowed 30 days of interim bail in the money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), on medical grounds. "Accused Sameer Mahandru is granted interim bail for 30 days from the date of his release for undertaking a surgery for removal of his gallbladder stone and also for undergoing MRI and other diagnostic tests and treatment for his back pain and other ailments,” stated the order..The order noted that the investigation with respect to the present accused persons had been concluded by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) with the filing of the chargesheet.The court underlined that during the investigation period, the investigating officer had sufficient time and opportunity to arrest any of the applicants, but there was a “conscious decision” not to arrest any of them. Two other accused - Vijay Nair and Abhishek Boinpally - were, however, arrested in the case..Referring to the prosecution’s “vague apprehensions” on the possibility of the accused influencing witnesses and tampering with the evidence, the court observed the same could be tackled with the imposition of bail conditions. “This court is of the considered opinion that it is a fit case where bail should be granted to the applicants pending trial and there is no reason or ground for taking any of them into custody,” it held..The CBI alleged that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) communications officer Vijay Nair conspired with the accused by utilising his position. He was alleged to have taken an advance of ₹20-30 crore from co-accused Abhishek Boinpally through his associate and co-accused Dinesh Arora (who has now turned approver and has been pardoned). This money was allegedly used to influence officers of Pernod Ricard India and Delhi Excise Department officials to get the distributorship of the former and an L1 license for Indospirits, which was not entitled to the same.Mahandru, meanwhile, was allowed 30 days of interim bail in the money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), on medical grounds. Delhi Deputy CM Sisodia was arrested in the CBI case on February 26 after the CBI claimed that he “evaded" questions, including those relating to “his incriminating role” seen from the evidence collected by the agency previously on October 17, 2022. .Advocates Dhruv Gupta and Manik Dhingra represented Mahandru. Advocates Pradeep Kumar Arya, Surinder Singh Rana and Gaurav Choudhary represented Kuldeep Singh. Advocate Bharat Gupta appeared for Narender Singh.Advocates Manu Sharma and Anuj Tiwari represented Pillai.Advocates Shivendra Diwedi and Rajat Bhardwaj appeared for Mootha.Senior Public Prosecutor Pankaj Gupta appeared for CBI..[Read Orders]