Delhi excise policy case: ED searches AAP MP Sanjay Singh residence

Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday conducted searches at the residence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh.

Some other premises of linked people were also being covered, ED official said.

On ED's raid, Sanjay Singh's father told ANI news agency, "The Department is doing its work, we will cooperate with them...I will wait for the time when he will get clearance...".

Singh, 51, is a Rajya Sabha MP from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). His staff members and those linked to him were earlier questioned by the ED in this case.

AAP Party's national spokesperson Reena Gupta said the reason behind the ED's search is because the minister continuously questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the industrialist Gautam Adani.

"Since Sanjay Singh was continuously raising questions on the issue of PM Modi and Adani, this is the reason why raids are being conducted at his residence. Nothing was found earlier, nothing will be found today. Raids were conducted yesterday at the residence of some journalists and today raids are conducted at the residence of Sanjay Singh," Reena Gupta said.

AAP Sanjay Singh's excise policy connection 

Earlier this May Singh in a letter to Finance Secretary T V Somanathan said that the ED Director and Assistant Director deliberately linked his name to the alleged liquor scam without any basis, tarnishing his public image and defaming him.

Sanjay Singh mentioned that his name was added on the basis of statements from Delhi-based businessman and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's close aide Dinesh Arora.

Singh also alleged that the officers misused their position tarnished his public image and demanded prosecution against them. He said he already sent a legal notice to the officers to issue an open and public apology.

According to PRI news agency, the name of the AAP leader appears four times in the ED charge sheet out of which one reference was wrong and typed inadvertently.

At one place Sanjay Singh's name was mentioned instead of Rahul Singh who was then excise commissioner.

It is alleged that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP.

The policy was subsequently scrapped and the Delhi lieutenant governor recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED registered a case under the PMLA.