Bail for Sanjay Singh

THE grant of bail to AAP MP Sanjay Singh has provided relief not only to his party but also to the Opposition bloc INDIA in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. Giving him respite in the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case, a Supreme Court Bench observed that no money had been recovered from his possession and there was no trace or trail of it. The bail was granted after the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which had arrested the MP in October last year, said it had no objection to his discharge on bail. However, the Bench’s assertion that its decision would not be treated as a precedent might dampen the hopes of other jailed AAP leaders, such as Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia.

Nevertheless, AAP and other Opposition parties are seeing the development in Sanjay’s case as a moral victory and a vindication of their stated position that the ruling BJP is misusing Central probe agencies to settle political scores. The ED, whose actions are under judicial scrutiny, faces the challenge of proving the guilt of Sanjay and other AAP leaders beyond reasonable doubt.

What has given the Opposition more fodder to attack the government is an investigation carried out by a leading English daily. It has found that since 2014, when the BJP-led NDA came to power, 25 prominent politicians on the radar of Central agencies for alleged corruption have crossed over to the saffron party’s camp. They include 10 from the Congress and the rest from regional parties. In 23 of these cases, their switching of loyalties has resulted in a reprieve. The ED, the CBI and the Income Tax Department have by and large closed such cases or put them on the back burner. The spate of poll-eve defections is also lending weight to the Opposition’s allegations of coercion and a quid pro quo.

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#Lok Sabha #Supreme Court