Excise ‘scam’: Court extends judicial custody of MP Sanjay Singh, Manish Sisodia

New Delhi, January 20

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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 chargesheet 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 chargesheet had already been filed by the Central probe agency on the completion of 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. The court on December 19 took cognisance of the supplementary prosecution complaint (ED’s equivalent to a chargesheet) filed against Sanjay Singh and his associate Mishra.

On October 4, Singh was arrested by the ED. 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.