Delhi HC reserves order on AAP MP plea over arrest, remand by ED

The Delhi high court on Thursday reserved its order on a petition filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Sanjay Singh challenging his arrest and remand by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the money laundering case stemming from the ongoing probe into the alleged irregularities in framing and implementing the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy 2020-21.

The verdict was reserved by a single-judge bench of justice Swarana Kanta Sharma.

Singh was arrested by ED on October 4, following a day-long interrogation at his Delhi residence. Singh has denied the charges, and termed them “false and baseless” and alleged a political witch-hunt by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

While extending his ED remand for three days, special judge MK Nagpal directed the investigating officer (IO) on October 10 to analyse all digital data without any delay and also complete the interrogation and examination of relevant witnesses.

Naming Sanjay Singh a “key conspirator” in the case, ED appearing through additional solicitor general SV Raju on Thursday told the court that Singh was capable of tampering with the evidence as he had access to confidential documents. The law officer also said that ED, while searching his house, had recovered the photo of a printout of Dinesh Arora’s statement recorded by ED officials.

“The photo shows it was taken in ED office. The issue is that he had access to ED office,” Raju said.

He added that Singh’s arrest was legal and in accordance with the law and was not a consequence of Singh sending a legal notice to ED officials and demanding an apology from them for allegedly making false and derogatory claims about him in the excise policy case.

“His (Singh’s) involvement had surfaced but before the notice. Evidence was not collected after he gave us notice. That is a bogey,” he added.