Senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia will remain in jail for six more months as the Supreme Court today refused him bail in the Delhi liquor policy case. A money trail of Rs 338 crore has been established in the case, the court noted and ordered that the trial be completed in 6-8 months.

Mr Sisodia can apply for bail again if the trial proceeds slowly, said a two-judge bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti.

“We have referred to the arguments and some of the legal questions but we have not answered most of them. In the analysis, there are certain aspects which are doubtful regarding the transfer of Rs 338 crore transfer is established. We have rejected the bail,” said Justice Khanna.

BJP MP Manoj Tiwari said the Supreme Court denying bail to Mr Sisodia makes it clear that the AAP leadership is involved in corruption. “Arvind Kejriwal will certainly be arrested because the AAP leadership is involved in corruption,” said Mr Tiwari.

Mr Sisodia, top aide of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, was arrested in connection with the alleged liquor scam in February and has been in jail since.

He faces two cases – one each by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the other by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), but denied any wrongdoing.

Mr Sisodia, who was the Deputy Chief Minister in Kejriwal government at the time of his arrest, resigned from the cabinet on February 28. He was handling 18 portfolios at the time, including the Excise Department.

The AAP had earlier said Mr Sisodia’s arrest was an “attack on the Delhi model of governance”.

Sixty people have been arrested after a mob looking for Israelis and Jews overran an airport in Russia’s Caucasus republic of Dagestan, the interior ministry said Monday.

“More than 150 active participants in the unrest have been identified, 60 of them have been arrested,” the ministry said in a statement.

The Congress, facing a cash crunch ahead of next year’s general elections, will soon kickstart a nationwide crowdfunding campaign, sources within the party have said.

Sources said that the party will launch the campaign after the assembly elections in five states next month. Polling will be held in Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Mizoram in November, with results for all 5 states set to be declared on December 3.

The party has formed an alliance with 25 other parties to take on the BJP in next year’s general elections. For the polls, Congress plans to seek funds from people across the country, including party workers.

The Congress has assets worth Rs 805.68 crore, according to a recent report by advocacy group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). The Bharatiya Janata Party, in comparison, has Rs 6,046.81 crore.

Corporate donations too have steadily dried up for Congress in the last 7 years, while BJP has been consistently going up. In the last 7 years, the corporate donations declared by the BJP are at least three times more than the total donations of all other National Parties. In FY 2017-18, it was more than eighteen times that of all other national parties.

The move by Congress to seek public donations appears modelled on the lines of the Aam Aadmi Party which seeks contributions online. The party had gone down this route for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls too, after it ran out of funds to run some of its offices.

But the party could win only 52 of the 545 Lok Sabha seats in the ensuing general elections. The BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, registered a thumping win securing 303 seats.