In yet another setback to the Aam Aadmi Party, the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday arrested its Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Singh, in connection with a money laundering case linked to the Delhi excise policy.
The arrest comes after the agency conducted hours-long raids at the residences of Singh and a few others allegedly linked to the case, and questioned the staff members of the AAP leader.
AAP workers and supporters staged a protest outside Singh’s residence, raising slogans against the central government. This is the third major arrest from the AAP. Earlier, the ED had arrested Health Minister Satyendar Jain in a money laundering case in May last year and the CBI arrested Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the excise policy scam in February this year.
The case pertains to allegations that the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders had favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it. The AAP has rejected the allegations, but the policy was subsequently scrapped.
The ED in its charge-sheet claimed that Singh had requested Dinesh Arora, a middleman, to ask restaurant owners to generate funds for the AAP for the Delhi assembly elections in 2020.
Dinesh had claimed that he had met Singh during a party in his restaurant Unplugged Courtyard, as per the ED charge-sheet. He also reportedly said in his statement to the agency that Singh had helped another accused, Amit Arora, to shift his liquor shop from Okhla to Pitampura.
The charge-sheet further quoted Dinesh as saying that he had met Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal once at his residence and that he had spoken to Sisodia five-six times. According to reports, the ED arrested Sanjay Singh as he did not cooperate and was evasive during questioning.
Fuming at the Centre, AAP MP Raghav Chadha said, “Almost since the last fifteen months, BJP has been accusing us (AAP workers) of a Liquor scam case. In the last 15 months, it has made ED and CBI conduct raids at 1,000 places… After arresting some people under the pretext of investigation and raiding 1,000 places, no agency has found a single penny…”
