Centre trying to 'silence' Sanjay Singh: AAP on arrest of Rajya Sabha MP

The AAP on Thursday accused the Centre of trying to silence its MP Sanjay Singh by arresting him, and challenged the BJP-led Union government to make public any evidence they have against him.

Singh was arrested on Wednesday by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with its money laundering probe linked to the 2021-22 Delhi Excise policy case.

Addressing a press conference here, senior AAP leader Atishi claimed that over 500 officers of the ED and CBI conducted raids at various places linked to the AAP leaders in the last 15 months but “haven't found a single evidence” against them. “They raided Manish Sisodia's residence, offices and several other places but they couldn't find evidence of corruption of even a single penny. And now, Sanjay Singh has been targeted,” she said. 

“The ED officers raided every inch of Sanjay Singh's residence but couldn't find anything. They arrested him because he constantly raised issues of Centre's corruption,” she added. 

Atishi further said that if there is any evidence against their leader, the Centre “should make it public”.

“I want to challenge the BJP that if they found any evidence against Sanjay Singh, they should make it public or they should quit politics. They can send their officers anywhere where Sanjay Singh visited and I can vouch that they will not find anything against him,” she claimed. 

She further charged that the Centre is “trying to silence” Sanjay Singh by arresting him. “We all know that whenever someone raises their voice against the government, there will be attempts to silence them. Since they couldn't silence him, they arrested him. The BJP should know that AAP is not going to get scared of their arrest threats,” she said. 

The arrest of the 51-year-old Singh, who became the second high profile leader of the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) to be nabbed in the case relating to the now scrapped Excise policy after former Deputy Chief Minister Sisodia, has sparked a political slugfest between the Arvind Kejriwal-led party and the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP).

Delhi minister Satyendar Jain was arrested by the ED on May 30, 2022 in a separate money laundering case.