New Delhi: Excise scam Court extends custody of Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh

New Delhi : A Delhi court on Thursday extended the judicial custody of Aam Aadmi Party leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh in a money laundering case related to the alleged excise scam.

Special Judge M K Nagpal extended the custody of the leaders after they were produced before the court on the expiry of their judicial remand granted earlier. The ED sought their further judicial custody, saying that the case was at a crucial stage, and if released, the accused may hamper the investigation.

The CBI had registered the case alleging that irregularities were committed while modifying the Delhi excise policy, undue favours were extended to licence holders, the licence fee was waived or reduced and the L-1 licence was extended without the competent authority’s approval.

The beneficiaries diverted “illegal” gains to the accused and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection. The ED started its investigation based on a CBI case, and it is probing the money laundering part of the alleged scam. The CBI arrested Sisodia in February 2023 and he was taken in custody from Tihar Jail by the ED in March. Sisodia resigned as Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi following his arrest by the CBI. Sanjay Singh was arrested in October 2023 by the ED. He was elected for a second consecutive term to Rajya Sabha in January this year. PTI UK

Meanwhile, The ED moved a court alleging that the accused in a money laundering case related to the alleged Delhi excise scam were adopting tactics to delay proceedings.

The ED stated this while opposing the application of the accused seeking a copy of the CCTV footage, including audio and video recordings, of the interrogation proceedings during the period of their custody. The central probe agency made the allegations before Special Judge M K Nagpal as it sought directions to the accused to co-operate in the trial and to “prevent them from causing unnecessary delay in commencement and conclusion of the trial.” The ED also alleged in its application that information/CCTV footage provided to the accused was being misused by AAP leaders against the investigating agency in media through “baseless defamatory” statements.