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 scam after they appeared through video conferencing from Tihar Jail. The court also reserved its order on a bail application of Sarvesh Mishra, a close aid of Singh and an accused in the case. Both Singh and Sisodia were produced before the court through video conference on the expiry of their judicial custody granted earlier in the case.

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

Also, Special Judge M K Nagpal reserved for January 24 the order on the bail application of Mishra, who had moved the plea after he appeared before the court in pursuance to the summons issued by the judge. The judge had summoned Mishra after taking cognisance of a 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 had already been filed by the central probe agency on completion of the probe.

The ED did not oppose his bail application during the arguments.

The court also reserved the order on bail of co-accused Amit Arora for January 24, 2024. The court on December 19 took cognisance of the supplementary prosecution complaint (ED’s equivalent to a charge sheet) filed against AAP MP Sanjay Singh and his associate, Mishra. On October 4, Singh was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate. The ED earlier told the court that Singh was part of the conspiracy to collect kickbacks from liquor groups in the Delhi excise policy 2021-22 The Delhi excise policy was scrapped in August 2022 and the Delhi lieutenant governor subsequently asked the CBI to probe the alleged irregularities and corruption involving government authorities, bureaucrats and liquor traders, among others.