NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Tuesday extended the Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Sanjay Singh till October 13 (Friday) in connection with a money laundering probe allegedly linked to the now-scrapped excise policy corruption case.
Singh was arrested on October 4 from his residence following a day-long raid and hours of questioning as part of the central agency's money laundering probe following which he was in the ED custody for 5 days initially last week.
At the end of his earlier custody, the AAP politician produced before Special Court judge MK Nagpal at the Rouse Avenue Courts.
The special judge had also denied bail on earlier occasions related to the ED and CBI cases of other AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) was seeking five-day custody of the Rajya Sabha MP for the interrogation which the court granted three days. It was also submitted by the probe agency that Singh was not cooperating with the questioning and his statements were recorded four times.
As per the Remand note, Singh has been a part of the conspiracy of collecting kickbacks from the liquor groups in the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.
It further says that Sanjay Singh has close relationship with liquor businessman Dinesh Arora--a star witness who was made accused earlier by CBI and ED and later turned approver in the case--since 2017 as revealed by the latter as well as from his call records.
Singh's associates--Vivek Tyagi, and Ajit Tyagi and Sarvesh Mishra also have a close relationship with Arora, the document says. Sanjay Singh has received proceeds of crime to the tune of 2 Cr in the Delhi Liquor Scam on two occasions, Remand note stated.
During the hearing, ED argued that Singh has refused to provide details of Arora and about the whereabouts of his old phones that he had stopped using 2-3 months ago.
Appearing for Singh,Senior Advocate Rebecca John argued that the ED had no ground for seeking extension of Singh's custody in the case which was based on “shifting statements” of co-accused Amit Arora, terming the ED charges as " fanciful allegations."
Notably, Singh who was "vocal" to the media was also directed by the court not to speak with the journalists. "This is Modiji's injustice. He will lose the election, he is losing the election,” he told media in the previous hearing.
Today he told the media that “Honest people are with us, dishonest are with PM Modi.”
