The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the Enforcement Directorate's stand on a plea by AAP leader Sanjay Singh against his arrest in a money laundering case related to alleged irregularities in the scrapped Delhi excise policy for 2021-22. The counsel appearing for the Rajya Sabha MP said due procedure was not followed when he was arrested by the investigating agency without any prior summons or notice in the case.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma asked the ED to file its response to the petition and listed the matter for hearing on Tuesday morning. The ED has alleged that Singh played a key role in the formulation and implementation of the now scrapped policy, which benefited certain liquor manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, for monetary considerations.
Singh was arrested on October 4 and has been sent to judicial custody until October 27. Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhari represented Sanjay Singh and argued that there has been a rampant abuse of the legal process. "A reputed leader has been arrested ... No notice or summon was ever issued to me. I wasn't called for any inquiry or investigation. Suddenly on October 4 morning they came to my house and carried out the search. At 5:25 in the evening, I was suddenly arrested," he submitted, according to a report by Bar and Bench.
The advocate also asserted that the grounds of arrest must be furnished in writing by the ED before carrying out the arrest as per the recent Supreme Court judgment in Directorate of Enforcement vs Roop Bansal and Ors (M3M case). The ED's lawyer asked the court to grant him time to file a response to the petition. “Today judicial custody is granted...I am entitled to put in a reply. Give me two days,” he said.
Warned against giving political speeches
During the brief hearing, the judge also directed Singh “not to give speech about unrelated matters” inside the court. The warning came after Singh alleged that the ED did not work on the complaint that Singh gave them against business tycoon Adani. “No unrelated matter. If you give speeches about Modi and Adani, I’ll ask for production through video conferencing from now onwards,” said the judge.
The Rajya Sabha MP also claimed before the court that the ED did not ask him relevant questions during his custodial interrogation. “All they asked is why did I take money from mother, why I sent Rs 10,000 to my wife's account. ED has become entertainment department, lies after lies. I gave them complaint against Adani but they did nothing,” Singh told the judge.
