A Supreme Court Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and S.V.N. Bhatti is scheduled on October 30 to deliver its judgment on a plea for bail filed by former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is facing money laundering charges in the liquor policy scam case.
The judgment is authored by Justice Khanna, who while reserving the case for verdict on October 17 had asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) how an offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) would be made out in the absence of a bribery charge against Mr. Sisodia, represented by senior advocate A.M. Singhvi.
“If the charge of a bribe is not part of the predicate offence, it may be difficult for you to prove a case under the PMLA. If you had said bribe of ₹2.2 crore was paid for tweaking the policy, yes. But you cannot create a predicate offence in your PMLA case. We cannot go on an assumption,” Justice Khanna had addressed Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, appearing for the Central agency.
