Jahanvi Agarwal
On 26th February, 2024, the Supreme Court took a significant step in response to a bail petition filed by Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh, directing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to submit its response. The Court, comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Dutta, has ordered the consolidation of Singh’s latest bail plea with his earlier pending petitions.
In a Special Leave Petition against the Delhi High Court’s February 7 ruling denying him bail, Singh seeks relief in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act case. The Court has set March 5 as the date for hearing both petitions.
Singh’s legal saga commenced with his arrest on October 4, 2023, followed by judicial custody. Previously, he approached the apex court challenging the Delhi High Court’s dismissal of his plea against arrest and remand related to alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped Delhi Excise policy.
“This court will not insinuate at this stage or impute any political motive to the investigating agency in absence of any material on record and does not consider it a prima facie case of no evidence at all,” the High Court said.
The Delhi High Court’s rejection of Singh’s plea cited insufficient grounds for relief. Additionally, in December 2023, Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court also denied him bail. The central agency’s arrest of Singh, stemming from raids at his Delhi residence, is linked to allegations that he received Rs. 2 crores, according to an employee of another accused in the case. The ED has asserted the presence of digital evidence against Singh.
At the heart of the matter lies the controversy surrounding the AAP-led Delhi government’s now-defunct Excise Policy, which allegedly favoured specific liquor traders through bribes for licenses, as alleged by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Case Name: Sanjay Singh v. Union of India and Anr.
Diary Number: 46017/2023
Bench: Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Dutta