SC seeks ED response on AAP MP Sanjay Singh's bail plea

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Enforcement Directorate on a plea by AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh seeking bail in a money laundering case related to alleged liquor policy scam.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta sought a response from the Enforcement Directorate and put the matter for consideration on March 5.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi appeared for Singh in the matter.

The court ordered to tag the present matter with a pending plea by Singh challenging his arrest and remand.

Singh was arrested on October 4, 2023 by the Enforcement Directorate.

On November 21, 2023, the apex court had issued notice to the ED on his plea against the Delhi High Court judgment of October 20, 2023, which had declined to interfere with his arrest in the case.

The HC had said the court finds no grounds to interfere.

“This court will not insinuate at this stage or impute any political motive to the investigating agency in absence of any material on record and does not consider it a prima facie case of no evidence at all,” the high court had said.

In February this year, the High Court had dismissed a bail plea by Singh saying there are specific statements that Rs 2 crores was paid to Sarvesh Mishra for Sanjay Singh at his official residence in lieu of the new excise policy made to suit them and generate profit for them and the role at this stage of the applicant cannot completely be ruled out.

The HC had also said "specific allegations” about the time, place and manner when the meetings and conversations took place between (co-accused) Dinesh Arora, Vivek Tyagi, Sarvesh Mishra, Vijay Nair, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh etc “cannot be disregarded at this stage”.