Excise policy cases: SC grants bail to AAP leader Manish Sisodia
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to AAP leader Manish Sisodia in the corruption and money laundering cases linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, noting that he has been in custody for 17 months.
A bench of justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan said Sisodia has been in custody for 17 months and trial has not yet commenced, depriving him of the right to speedy trial.
The bench said it would be a travesty of justice to relegate him to the trial court for seeking bail in these cases.
The top court said it is high time that the trial courts and high courts recognise that the principle of bail is a rule and jail is an exception.
It directed that Sisodia be released on bail on a personal bond of Rs 10 lakh with two sureties of the like amount.
The former deputy chief minister of Delhi was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26, 2023 for the purported irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021-22.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested him in the money laundering case stemming from the CBI FIR on March 9, 2023.
He resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28, 2023.
Sisodia had sought bail contending that he has been in custody for 17 months and the trial against him has not yet started.
The ED and the CBI had opposed his bail pleas.
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Two arrested in K'taka for assaulting minors, uploading CSAM content
Bengaluru (PTI): Two men were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls, recording the acts on mobile phones and uploading the videos online as child sexual abuse material, police said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Kiran Kumar (29), hailing from Chitradurga district, and Aditya M K (20), hailing from Shivamogga district, they said.
A probe was initiated after information was received from the NCRP portal regarding a suspected instance of creation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) for online dissemination, police said.
Accordingly, a case was registered at Kaggalipura Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act on May 10, they added.
Investigation revealed that two minor girl victims were exploited and videos were created and uploaded to the internet. The child victims have subsequently recorded their statements as per procedure and further necessary legal steps have been taken, Pronab Mohanty Director General of Police, Cyber Command, said in a statement.
Based on the statements of the victims, the accused persons, who allegedly assaulted the minors, recorded the acts on mobile phones and uploaded the videos online, were arrested, he said.
Following the probe, sections 65(2) (rape) and 70 (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act, have been added to the FIR, police said.
Officials collected relevant information and on May 12, arrested the accused persons and seized three mobile phones belonging to them, in which the videos had allegedly been recorded, he said.
The accused were later produced before the court and taken into police custody for further investigation, he added.
According to him, in CSAM cases, police usually apprehend offenders who have downloaded such content or have kept them in their possession after obtaining them from elsewhere, usually the internet.
"The present case is one of the very few instances where content creators and uploaders have been apprehended," Mohanty added.
