Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh moves Delhi high court for bail in ED case

NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) member of Parliament (MP) Sanjay Singh has approached the Delhi high court, challenging a city court’s decision to reject his request for bail last month in a money laundering case registered in connection with the implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy.

Sanjay Singh, 51, was arrested on October 4 under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for allegedly playing a key role in getting favours for himself and certain businessmen through his aides by influencing the excise policy.

A bail application filed by Sanjay Singh, one of AAP’s most vocal voices inside and outside Rajya Sabha, was rejected by special judge MK Nagpal, on December 22. The judge reasoned that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Singh was connected with the “proceeds of crime”.

The December 22 order also underlined that there were no “irregularities” or “illegalities” in his arrest, saying it was not necessary for him to either be named in the first information report (FIR) or be charge-sheeted in the main excise policy case to be made as an accused in the money laundering offence.

The offence under PMLA depends upon the connection of an individual, directly or indirectly, with the proceeds of a crime, even though these activities may be independent of the crime itself, the court noted.

“The oral and documentary evidence produced on this aspect (allegations that Singh is connected to the proceeds of crime to the tune of ₹2 crore) shows that the said amounts were meant to be delivered by the approver Dinesh Arora to the applicant only and the same were delivered through the above associate of applicant, namely Sarvesh Mishra and he accepted or received the same on behalf of the applicant.”

To be sure, the Delhi high court in October last year rejected Sanjay Singh’s petition against his arrest, saying it was not appropriate for the court to interfere when the ED investigation into the case was still at a “premature and nascent stage.”

“This court desists from imputing political affiliations or objects to the premier investigating agency. This court will not at this stage insinuate or impute any political motivates to the agency in the absence of any political record,” the high court said on October 20.

Sanjay Singh approached the Supreme Court against this October order. A bench led by justice Sanjiv Khanna sought the Centre and ED’s response to the petition in November and told the city court to consider Singh’s plea for regular bail independent of the observations made by the high court.