Delhi court dismisses bail plea of AAP's Sanjay Singh in excise policy case
Dec 22, 2023
New Delhi [India], December 22 : The Rouse Avenue court on Friday dismissed the bail application of Aam Admi Party (AAP) MP Sanjay Singh in the excise policy case.
Singh was charge-sheeted by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). He was arrested on October 4 in a money laundering case related to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam.
Special Judge M K Nagpal dismissed the bail application. The detailed bail order is awaited.
On December 12, the court had reserved an order after hearing rebuttal arguments on the bail plea of Sanjay Singh and ED.
Senior advocate Mohit Mathur appeared for Sanjay Singh. He submitted that Sanjay Singh was not called even once for questioning before October 4, 2023. He had further argued that "My (Singh's) legal notice sparked problem for them. Then they started noticing me."
"I am not asking for discharge, I am asking for bail. My personal liberty is sacrosanct in the Constitution," the senior advocate submitted.
He also raised contradictions in the statement of accused turn approver Dinesh Arora, Chandan Reddy and other witnesses. He submitted that Dinesh Arora's statement is hearsay. "Now he has a pseudo-name, Alpha. How can one assume that Dinesh Arora is telling the truth?" he said.
"It is a business deal and can't see corruption in every business deal. Alpha said he got money from Nitin Kapoor who denied this fact," he added.
He further submitted that as per Sravan Singh, Dinesh Arora is a tainted witness. The approver is guilty accomplished, he said.
"When we talk about proceed of crime, there should be some money. In this case, there is no source of money," he argued.
"You keep me in custody for 60 days and you have nothing against me," he added.
On the last date, it was submitted by the ED that there is evidence of bribe demand, statements and also recovered some documents.
Special counsel Zoheb Hossain for ED argued that the liquor policy was being formulated and in lieu of that bribes were being given and accepted all the way to the SC.
During his arguments, he also referred to the High Court order in Satyendar Jain's case that Court has to see the past trend and attendant circumstances.
He further argued there are statements under Section 50 of PMLA which are to be considered while deciding the bail application.
On the point of the past trend, he referred to the statement of Tushar Mehra owner of Anant Wines who said that Sarvesh Mishra was demanding for bribes for liquor business in Punjab on behalf of Sanjay Singh.
The Special counsel also submitted, "In the material we have Alpha (protected witness) has confirmed that he has given money to Sarvesh Mishra."
He further argued that there is a statement of Dinesh Arora. "164 statements were given without any pressure or influence."
Special counsel Zoheb referred to the Supreme Court judgment in Suresh Chandra Bahri where it has said that inducement is necessary to turn an accused into an approver. The Supreme Court recognizes that some degree of inducement is implicit.
"Merely because he has not named somebody earlier does not make it that if he has named them at a later stage becomes invalid when a valid reason has been given. He has said that these are powerful people and there was threat. There is an acceptable reason which he has given," the ED's counsel argued.
Zoheb Hossain submitted that certain documents were found from Sanjay Singh. The documents found on him were photographs of the documents. The signature shown in the photo shows the source of the documents which are not on court records.
"It showed that a person showing that he has not done anything with the scam is keeping an eye on the documents. This shows the influence of the petitioner. It shows that he can get documents from an ongoing investigation through his power," the counsel argued.
The special counsel had further argued that Sanjay Singh's name was rightly used in three places and at one place it was a typing error.
The ED earlier told the court that Sanjay Singh was part of the conspiracy to collect kickbacks from liquor groups in the Delhi excise policy 2021-22.
Sanjay Singh allegedly had close relations with now approver Dinesh Arora who allegedly introduced accused Amit Arora to Sanjay Singh. Dinesh Arora was in regular touch with Sanjay Singh. This has been proved by analysis of Call Detail Records. Singh allegedly received proceeds of crime of Rs 2 crores, stated the ED earlier.
