A Delhi court on Thursday granted five-day custody of Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh to the Enforcement Directorate.
The order by Rouse Avenue court comes day after the AAP leader was arrested by the central agency as part of its money laundering probe in the excise policy case. “False and baseless allegations, we are not scared, we will fight back”, Singh said after the court order.
During the hearing, the probe agency had sought a ten-day remand of Singh, stating it wanted to confront the AAP MP with the digital evidence against him in the case.
While appearing for Sanjay Singh, senior lawyer Mohit Mathur argued in the court,”This case investigation keeps going and will never end. Dinesh Arora who is a star witness was made accused earlier by both agencies and later he turned approver in the case.”
Singh’s lawyer opposed the remand plea of ED and said that demanding 10 days is an absurd position for someone who is not involved in the matter at all.
Ahead of his appearance in the court, Sanjay Singh said that his arrest is “Modiji’s injustice and he would lose the election”.
In its chargesheet, the ED had alleged Singh played a key role in the formulation and implementation of the now scrapped excise policy. It claimed that the policy had favoured several liquor manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers.
A chargesheet filed in May against former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia had claimed that restauranteur Dinesh Arora was extremely close to both Singh and Sisodia.
According to ED, Arora met Singh, through whom he came in contact with Sisodia during a party at his own restaurant. The agency has claimed Sanjay Singh called up Arora and asked him to seek donations from other restaurant owners for funds for the 2020 Delhi assembly election.