New Delhi:
Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh is being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case. A Delhi Court remanded the Rajya Sabha MP to five-day custody of the probe agency which alleged that Mr Singh was a “key conspirator” in the case.
The ED told the court that a businessman had given Rs 2 crore to Mr Singh and this sum was part of the money trail in Delhi liquor policy case. The agency also alleged that the AAP leader had close ties with several accused, including businessman Dinesh Arora – who recently turned approver in the case.
“The accused (Sanjay Singh) was involved in a criminal conspiracy for extending favours to private persons through the policy formulation,” the agency said in its application.
The ED told the court that it has seized digital evidence from the AAP MP’s premises and would confront him. It alleged that the money was delivered by Sarvesh, an employee of Arora. “There is a direct link to proceeds of crime,” the ED counsel told the court.
Special Judge MK Nagpal remanded Mr Singh in ED custody till October 10 to enable the federal probe agency to interrogate him. He will be produced before the court on expiry of his custody.
The judge noted that from the allegations being levelled against the accused and the material placed before the court regarding his “direct nexus with activities pertaining to proceeds of crime by way of receiving Rs 2 crore”, his “sustained and custodial interrogation appeared to be necessary to trace out the complete trail thereof.”
“Therefore, in view of the above and the totality of facts and circumstances, the accused is being remanded to the custody of ED till October 10, 2023 for the purposes of his detailed and sustained interrogation and confrontations with the oral and documentary evidence and he shall be produced before this court at 2 pm on that day,” the judge said.
Sanjay Singh was arrested on Wednesday following day-long searches at his residence. He is the second senior AAP leader to be arrested in connection with the alleged irregularities in the liquor policy case, after Delhi’s former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. Mr Sisodia, who was arrested in February, is fighting for bail in Supreme Court, which today fielded tough questions to the ED.
The AAP has said Mr Singh’s arrest was a result of the BJP’s “frustration” with the Opposition parties coming together under the INDIA bloc ahead of the 2024 general election.