Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh promised favours to the beneficiaries of the Delhi excise policy 'scam' with the help of former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, the Enforcement Directorate Thursday claimed before a Delhi court which remanded the Rajya Sabha MP in ED's custody for five days.
The anti-money laundering agency had arrested Singh on Wednesday.
"The investigation has revealed that Singh had assured to get changes through Manish Sisodia in the then proposed Excise Policy of 2020-21 to increase the brand registration criterion for IMFL brands at the behest of Amit Arora and Dinesh Arora.
"In exchange for this, an associate/team member of Singh i.e. Vivek Tyagi was given stakes in the business concern of Amit Arora i.e. Aralias Hospitality Pvt Ltd," the ED said.
Dinesh Arora, a businessman considered close to Sisodia, was an accused in the money laundering case linked to the alleged scam. He later turned an approver.
Meanwhile, Special Judge M K Nagpal remanded Singh in ED custody till October 10 to enable the federal probe agency to interrogate him, saying his "sustained and custodial interrogation appeared to be necessary to trace out the complete trail".
The Rajya Sabha MP will be produced before the court on expiry of his custody.
The judge noted that from the allegations being levelled against the accused and the material placed before the court regarding his "direct nexus with activities pertaining to proceeds of crime by way of receiving Rs 2 crore", his "sustained and custodial interrogation appeared to be necessary to trace out the complete trail thereof."
"Therefore, in view of the above and the totality of facts & circumstances, the accused is being remanded to the custody of ED till October 10, 2023 for the purposes of his detailed and sustained interrogation and confrontations with the oral and documentary evidence and he shall be produced before this court at 2 pm on that day,” the judge said.
The judge, however, directed that his interrogation shall be conducted at some place having CCTV coverage in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court and the said CCTV footage shall be preserved.
He shall be medically examined once in every 48 hours, the judge said.
While being brought to the courtroom, Singh said his arrest was an act of injustice by Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose party was going to lose the next Lok Sabha elections.
Singh was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday in connection with its money laundering probe linked to the 2021-22 Delhi Excise policy case, in a huge blow to the city's ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
"This is Modiji's injustice. He will lose election, he is losing election," he told journalists.
Later, when the court asked him whether he wanted to say something, Singh claimed he was being treated unfairly.
"Sir, Amit Arora gave tens of statements, Dinesh Arora gave several statements, but they did not remember my name. I'm not that unknown that they forgot my name. Now they have suddenly remembered. There's no separate law. I was not summoned even once. Why different law for me," the AAP leader said, rebutting the ED's claim he received Rs 2 crore from Dinesh Arora, a businessman accused in the case who has now turned an approver.
During the hearing, the ED sought Singh's custody saying several people were yet to be examined and confronted with him. The agency said it also wanted to confront Singh with data extracted from his phone.
The Enforcement Directorate, represented by Special Counsel Zoheb Hossain and Special Public Prosecutor N K Matta, alleged Singh received Rs 2 crore in two tranches.
"The money was delivered to his residence. Dinesh Arora cross-checked with him also and he confirmed it. Investigation has revealed that two crore cash was given. A total of three crore money was given,” the ED said.
When the agency said it wanted to confront Singh with digital evidence extracted from his mobile phone, the court told its counsel it can be done even without taking him into custody.
"Why do you want to confront him with the phone? You can extract the data even otherwise," the judge said.
The ED alleged that the accused was withholding certain information which was in his exclusive knowledge and was “extremely relevant” to the investigation and hence, his custodial interrogation was required to investigate the money trail of the bribe or kickback amount received by him from the approver Dinesh Arora.
His custody was further required for confronting him with various digital and physical records which was seized during the course of 239 search operations conducted in the case till date, besides confronting him with contents of his mobile phone which may be retrieved, the ED said.
It was also submitted that he further requires to be confronted with Vivek Kumar Tyagi, Kanwar Bir Singh and Sarvesh Mishra.
Senior advocate Mohit Mathur, representing Singh, opposed the ED's application seeking his remand, saying the agency's witness Dinesh Arora was not trustworthy.
"He was an accused first, then in a quid pro quo he turned witness. His stand is changing. He is an accused, turns approver, gives statement; the statement is not favourable to ED, ED arrests him and he turns approver in ED case. He changes statement and ED arrests me on that statement,” Singh's counsel said.
He accused the ED of humiliating Singh by arresting him.
"There are separate agenda. DA (Dinesh Arora) is in their hand for the last one and a half years. The statement was given earlier. Why it is being brought up now. Once you had the statement (of Arora), you did not call me for explanation. You want to humiliate me by arresting me (Singh),” Mathur said.
