The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on December 2 filed a 60-page chargesheet against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP, Sanjay Singh, in connection with a case of money laundering associated with the Delhi excise policy scam. The court will take cognisance of the chargesheet on Monday, December 04.
The chargesheet, filed to Special Judge M.K. Nagpal of Rouse Avenue Court, is the fifth supplementary chargesheet in the money laundering case in which the investigative agency has charged Mr. Singh under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
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Mr. Singh, who is considered close to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, is the third senior AAP leader to be arrested in less than a year and a half. Former Delhi Public Works Department Minister Satyendar Jain has been in jail for over a year in an alleged money laundering case. Former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi and AAP leader, Manish Sisodia was arrested in February in the same case.
Currently lodged at Tihar jail, Mr. Singh was termed as one of the “key conspirators” for being associated with a businessman and key accused, Dinesh Arora. The agency had earlier alleged that Mr. Arora had been closely linked with the AAP since the time it came to power in Delhi. He allegedly collected cash from all the hoteliers and restaurateurs for the party leaders.
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The ED investigation is based on a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation against Mr. Sisodia and others on August 17 last year, on a reference from the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The case alleges deliberate irregularities in the framing and implementation of the excise policy and undue favours extended to the licensees in the form of waiver/reduction in the licence fee, extension of L-1 licences without approval, etc.
According to the ED, the erstwhile policy had extended an extraordinarily high 12% profit margin for wholesalers and almost 185% profit margin for retailers. The beneficiaries were allowed to profiteer through cartelisation.
The then AAP communication and media in-charge, Vijay Nair, on behalf of the party leaders, had received about ₹100 crore in advance from a “South group”, the ED said. The group’s prominent entities were allegedly businessman P. Sarath Chandra Reddy and his son; K. Kavitha, the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and a Bharat Rashtra Samithi MLC.
The ED has quantified the alleged “proceeds of crime” in the case to be at least ₹1,934 crore.
