The Enforcement Directorate raided Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh's New Delhi residence in connection with the 2021 liquor policy scam, reported ANI. The 51-year-old's aides were earlier questioned by the agency after his name was mentioned in a prosecution complaint in December 2022.
Former Delhi deputy chief minister and excise minister Manish Sisodia is already under judicial custody at Tihar jail in connection with a money laundering probe in the same case. He resigned from the Delhi Cabinet on February 28. The latest ED raids come hours before the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Sisodia's bail plea. The court adjourned the hearing after a joint request by lawyers on September 15.
In April, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was also questioned for nearly nine hours in the 2021 excise policy case. The CBI and ED accused the AAP government of grant licences to certain liquor dealers by taking bribes. The policy was later scrapped and AAP has dismissed the allegations raised by the agencies.
Speaking to ANI, Sanjay Singh's father said, "The Department is doing its work, we will cooperate with them...I will wait for the time when he will get clearance..."
Reacting to the ED search at the residence of Singh, AAP's national spokesperson Reena Gupta said the MP is being targeted because he kept questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi and business mogul 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," ANI quoted Gupta as saying.
Following the raid, BJP leader Dushyant Gautam came up with further allegations. "They have done the work of fooling people. The excise policy scam worth crores was done at the residence of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. All discussions were done at his residence only," ANI quoted Gautam as saying.
In May, Singh wrote a letter to Finance Secretary T.V. Somanathan, saying the ED officials linked his name to the alleged liquor scam without evidence. Singh reportedly sent a legal notice to the ED director and assistant director, demanding a public apology for defaming him.
