Delhi Excise ‘Scam’: Court extends judicial custody of AAP’s Sanjay Singh, Manish Sisodia

A Delhi court on Saturday extended the judicial custody of AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Manish Sisodia till February 3 in a money laundering case related to the alleged excise duty scam after they appeared through video conferencing from Tihar Jail.

The court also reserved its order on the bail plea of ​​Singh’s close aide and accused in the case, Sarvesh Mishra.

Both Singh and Sisodia were produced in the court through video conferencing on the expiry of the judicial custody granted earlier in the case.

The concerned officer told the court that the accused could not be physically produced due to security reasons and shortage of police personnel due to Republic Day preparations.

Also, Special Judge MK Nagpal reserved for January 24 the order on the bail plea of ​​Mishra, who had filed the petition after appearing in the court in compliance with the summons issued by the judge.

The judge had summoned Mishra after taking cognizance of the charge sheet filed against him and Singh.

In his application, the accused claimed that since he was not arrested during the investigation by the ED, no purpose would be served by sending him to jail after the charge sheet has already been filed by the central investigating agency on completion of the investigation.

During the arguments, ED did not oppose his bail application.

The court also reserved the order on the bail of co-accused Amit Arora for January 24, 2024.

The court on December 19 took cognizance of the supplementary prosecution complaint (equivalent to a charge sheet of the ED) filed against AAP MP Sanjay Singh and his aide Mishra.

On October 4, Singh was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate.

The ED had earlier told the court that Singh was part of a conspiracy to extort bribes from liquor groups in the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.

Delhi’s excise policy was repealed in August 2022 and the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi later asked the CBI to investigate alleged irregularities and corruption involving government officials, bureaucrats and liquor traders, among others.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)