Sanjay Singh, the Rajya Sabha member of the AAP, was detained by the Enforcement Directorate as part of its investigation into the Delhi excise policy. This development involves the AAP leadership in the scandal surrounding alleged corruption in the allocation of liquor vends by the Arvind Kejriwal administration.
After a full day of searches of Singh's home and other locations in the city, he was taken into jail. A special court later remanded him into the custody of ED for five days. Singh claimed he was being arrested “without any evidence” and his party said the ED’s action was “completely illegal” and showed BJP’s “frustration” as it was going to lose the 2024 polls to the INDIA bloc. BJP on its part mounted a blistering attack on Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, accusing him of being the “kingpin” of the alleged scam and said “handcuffs” were not far away.
A day after a local court accepted the plea of two of the key accused in the scam, Dinesh Arora, a prominent liquor trader in the city, and Raghav Magunta, to turn approvers, the vocal RS member was arrested. He is the second AAP leader after deputy CM Manish Sisodia to be jailed in connection with the liquor scam.
The ED had already put on record Arora’s alleged association with Singh in the chargesheets filed earlier in the money laundering case. Singh, before his arrest, again refuted charges and denied any links to the liquor cartel, calling his arrest “political vendetta”.