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The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in its fourth supplementary prosecution complaint in a money laundering case connected to the Delhi excise policy case, claimed that AAP MP Sanjay Singh was “extremely close” to accused Dinesh Arora and served as a conduit between him and then deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia.
The prosecution complaint, which is the equivalent of a chargesheet in the ED, was submitted in May of this year. Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP, was apprehended by the agency on Wednesday following raids at his New Delhi apartment, a day after a court granted Dinesh Arora, a Delhi-based businessman, approval in the money laundering case.
The 2020–21 Excise policy ruckus
The Kejriwal administration originally unveiled the 2020–21 excise policy in November 2021. Naresh Kumar, the chief secretary of Delhi, raised concerns about potential policy violations in July 2022, alleging “deliberate and gross procedural lapses” that permitted holders of liquor licenses to receive “undue benefits”.
Then Lieutenant-Governor VK Saxena suggested that the CBI conduct an investigation. In response to the accusations, the Kejriwal administration abandoned the policy shortly after. Then, a current policy was expanded. In February of this year, the CBI detained Sisodia in connection with the excise policy investigation.
ED’s explanation of ‘the deal’
The accused businessman, Amit Arora, was allegedly taken to Sanjay Singh’s home by Dinesh Arora, according to the prosecution case. There, Singh is said to have informed Amit Arora that if he lets a few of the MP’s aides work for him in his liquor company, he (Singh) might set up a meeting between the businessman and Sisodia, who was acting as deputy chief minister and minister of excise at the time.
Amit Arora, the director of Buddy Retail Pvt. Ltd. in Gurugram, was detained by the ED in November of last year in connection with the money laundering investigation. In the initial FIR the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed in the excise policy case, he was also listed as an accused party.
Amit Arora was allegedly summoned to Sanjay Singh’s house a few days after the meeting and informed by the MP that he had to go for a meeting with Sisodia.
According to the agency, Sisodia promised that the excise policy would be changed as part of a “deal” between the two parties to “increase the brand registration criterion for IMFL brands at the request of both Amit Arora and Dinesh Arora”. In exchange, the ED claims Vivek Tyagi, a close associate of Sanjay Singh, received shares in Amit Arora’s Aralias Hospitality Pvt Ltd.
Last year, the MP served legal notifications on joint director Jogender Singh and then-ED director Sanjay Mishra after Sanjay Singh’s name appeared in a supplementary remand letter.
Singh’s name appeared in the prosecution complaint four times, one of which was an “inadvertent or typographical error,” according to sources in the ED.
Sanjay Singh also requested permission to sue Sanjay Mishra for making “false and derogatory claims” about him in connection with the excise policy case in a letter to Finance Secretary T.V. Somanathan in May.
Reactions post Sanjay Singh‘s arrest
In response to the arrest, Delhi Minister Atishi stated on Wednesday that the ED “survives on baseless accusations against AAP leaders.” She also blasted the BJP on social media platform X, saying she questioned how low the party would go in fear of losing to the INDIA coalition.
Shortly after his detention, the AAP published a video in which Sanjay Singh claimed that the ED raided his home and arrested him for no reason. He went on to say that his arrest reflects Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “hopeless condition and sense of defeat.”
“I’ve been raising concerns about the Adani issue and have complained to ED about it, but no action has been taken. Rather, the ED showed up at my house today and began searching. They found nothing, but they are still arresting me. We want to express to Modiji that this is an indication of your desperation and loss. This is an example of how one prime minister uses authoritarianism and imprisons opponents to win elections. Whatever happens, I will embrace death but will not be afraid to expose the Modi administration and Adani’s malfeasance,” he added in the video.
The ED further asserted that Dinesh Arora once met Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, at Sanjay Singh’s house in the prosecution complaint. It further claimed that Arora helped AAP secure funding when Sanjay Singh contacted him to inform him that the group needed it before the assembly elections.
