"Tareekh pe tareekh...", says AAP while staging a protest against Sanjay Singh's arrest
Oct 27, 2023
New Delhi [India], October 27 : The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers on Friday staged a massive protest outside the party headquarters here in the national capital, demanding AAP MP Sanjay Singh's acquittal in the alleged Excise Police Scam case.
The party cadre wanted to march to the ruling BJP headquarters, displaying outrage against MP Singh's arrest. Heavy police force was deployed to curb the protests.
"We believe in the judiciary. But sometimes, the process becomes punishment. What is this? Tareekh pe tareekh. Sanjay Singh should be acquitted as soon as possible. The ED and the CBI have reached Rajasthan, too. This will go on till the Lok Sabha polls in 2024", an AAP worker told ANI. 
Another protesting AAP worker termed it as a "conspiracy". 
"This is a conspiracy. Sanjay Singh would roar against the government in the parliament over the Adani issue. This is why, the government was afraid of him", he said while speaking to ANI.
On October 27, the Delhi High Court dismissed a plea moved by Aam Aadmi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh challenging his remand and arrest in the alleged liquor 'scam' case.
Sanjay Singh through his plea had stated that he is neither a suspect nor an accused and despite one main charge sheet and two supplementary charge sheets having been filed for the last more than one year, there is absolutely no involvement of the petitioner at all to date.
The bench of Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma passed the order and stated that the court did not find any reason to interfere with the order of remand or the arrest.
The petition is premature at this stage and the investigation is still to take place, stated the Court.
Earlier, appearing for Sanjay Singh, Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhari argued that the action of arresting a reputed person in the country had taken place without following procedures. For more than one year, untill now, I was never called by the Enforcement Directorate, the lawyer said.
"Suddenly on October 4, they came to my house, carried out a search, took my mobile phone, and some papers and later in the evening arrested me. Dinesh Arora gives different answers to the same question, he eventually starts speaking what the agency wants him to say," Singh's lawyer argued.
The trial Court last week sent Sanjay Singh to Judicial Custody till October 27, 2023.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) recently arrested Sanjay Singh after a day-long questioning by the ED officials at his Delhi residence.
Sanjay Singh's party colleague and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia of Delhi was also arrested in the same liquor policy scam case in March month this year.
ED claimed that Singh and his associates played a part in the Delhi government's decision to give licenses to alcohol shops and merchants in 2020, causing losses to the state exchequer and violating anti-corruption laws.
ED has previously searched a number of locations including the homes and offices of Sanjay Singh's alleged close associate Ajit Tyagi and other contractors and businessmen who allegedly benefited from the policy. In its nearly 270-page supplementary charge sheet, the ED has called Sisodia a key conspirator in the case.
The Delhi liquor scam case or the excise policy case pertains to allegations that the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge that has been strongly refuted by the AAP.
