The Delhi high court on Monday sought the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) response to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) member of Parliament (MP) Sanjay Singh bail plea in the money laundering case registered in connection with the now-scrapped 2021-22 Delhi excise policy.
Sanjay Singh, 51, who was arrested on October 4 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for allegedly receiving ₹2 crore, moved the high court against a special court’s December 22 order denying him bail, saying there were reasonable grounds to believe that he was connected with the “proceeds of crime”.
The special court ruled there were no “irregularities” or “illegalities” in Singh’s arrest and remand. It added it was not necessary for him to either be named in the First Information Report (FIR) or be charged in the main excise policy case to be made as an accused.
In his plea filed through advocate Rajat Bharadwaj, Singh argued the allegation that ₹2 crore was paid to his close associate was not in the Central Bureau of Investigation’s chargesheet. Singh insisted the alleged payment cannot be regarded as proceeds of crime under the PMLA.
On October 24 last year, Justice Sharma had dismissed Singh’s plea challenging his arrest and remand in the money laundering case. The court had said that ED cannot be expected to work as magicians and that it will take time to investigate a case and reach to the truth.
Earlier, the trial court had said the bail applications of other accused, including Sameer Mahendru, Amit Arora, Vijay Nair, Arun Ramachandran Pillai, Amandeep Dhall and Abhishek Boinpally, were already dismissed and its interpretation of the PMLA provisions while dismissing the applications were not set aside by any superior court. It had said the ED showed accused-turned-approver Dinesh Arora paid Singh Rs 2 crore.
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