NEW DELHI: The Rose Avenue court on Saturday decided to hear the bail plea of former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia in a money laundering case pertaining to alleged irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy of the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD).

In response to the lengthy reply submitted by ED pertaining to the bail plea of the former Deputy Minister, Special Judge MK Nagpal adjourned the matter for April 5 and asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and served a copy of the reply to Sisodia’s lawyer.

Sending Sisodia to ED custody the court earlier underscored that it cannot be ignored that investigation into an ED case is a complicated affair and keeping in view the intricacies of the case, the multiplicity of the persons/accused involved in the commission of the alleged offence of money laundering and the huge volume of the records or data seized during the investigation and required to be analysed by the Investigating Agency, it is bound to take some time and the IO or Investigating Agency cannot be faulted or blamed for the same, though they are duty bound to do and conclude it as early as possible.

Advocate Zohaib Hossain, who is appearing for the  ED, submitted that huge and mobile data is being forensically analysed. He highoigthat the mobile phone used by Mr Sisodia for a long time was changed the day the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi wrote to the Central Bureau of Investigation.