NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday refuted AAP MP Sanjay Singh's claim that his name was wrongly mentioned in the ED chargesheet. The probe agency alleged that the Rajya Sabha MP was trying to mislead the investigation.
The Directorate of Enforcement had moved an application for a correction in the third prosecution complaint (chargesheet) it filed in a special PMLA court on April 6 in which the name of AAP leader Sanjay Singh had appeared erroneously in one place out of the four occasions in the document.
The investigation officer of the ED moved the application on April 20 seeking a correction as his name was incorrectly mentioned in place of Rahul Singh who was the Excise Commissioner of Delhi at the relevant period.
Responding to a notice served to ED by Sanjay Singh’s lawyer Maninder Singh Bedi, ED counsel Zoheb Hossain, replied, “The inadvertent/typographical error may reasonably be construed from the fact that in the relevant paragraph out of four references only at one reference, a typographical/clerical error has inadvertently crept in (instead of ‘Rahul Singh’, ‘Sanjay Singh’ was inadvertently mentioned at only one reference). The moment typographical/clerical came to notice, promptly on April 20 2023, a correctional measure by way of moving an appropriate application before the concerned Hon’ble Special Court, PMLA, New Delhi has been taken.”
Hossain further said in his response, “Legal Notice (supra) is an attempt to malign the image of the premier investigating agency in general and the Director, ED in particular, in as much as, the matter is sub judice before the Hon’ble Special Court, PMLA, New Delhi, wherein, an amendment for correction of inadvertent typographical/clerical error in the prosecution complaint is sought by the Directorate.”
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The ED counsel also said that the imputations and aspersions attributed towards ED are ill-advised, baseless and devoid of merits. The making of a public statement in the media despite being aware of the fact that the matter is sub judice before the Hon’ble Special Court, PMLA, New Delhi, is per se illegal and therefore, you are requested not to make any media statement/media trial and withdraw your subject legal notice.
The ED filed its third chargesheet on April 6 in the Delhi excise policy case in which kickback money that originated out of the policy which favoured ‘liquor lobbies’ was laundered by various middlemen to bribe government officials and politicians, particularly from the AAP. Former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and BRS leader K Kavitha have not been named.
The chargesheet which runs into about 250 pages named Raghav Magunta, son of YSR Congress MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, Gautam Malhotra and Rajesh Joshi. Five private companies have also been named.
