MLA withdraws petition from SC against ED arrest

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 30
AAP MLA Jaswant Singh Gajjan Majra on Tuesday withdrew from the Supreme Court his petition challenging his arrest and remand by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering probe linked to a bank fraud case.
Allowing a request made by senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhri and advocate Nikhil Jain on behalf of Singh for the withdrawal of his petition, a Bench led by Justice Bela M Trivedi granted him liberty to move the Punjab and Haryana High Court for bail.
Singh has been in jail since his arrest on November 6, 2023, in a money laundering case probed by the ED.
On May 29, the top court had refused to grant interim bail to Singh to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.
The CBI conducted raids in May last year on the premises linked to Jaswant Singh in connection with a Rs 40-crore bank fraud. In September 2022, the ED conducted raids on several premises linked to him as part of a money laundering probe linked to the alleged bank loan fraud. The ED had allegedly seized Rs 32 lakh cash, mobile phones and hard drives during the raids.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court had earlier dismissed his plea challenging his arrest, observing that there was no illegality. “We do not find any manifest illegality in the orders of remand and subsequent proceedings”, the high court had said.
The AAP MLA from Amargarh had contended that he was arrested in violation of Section 19 (1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. However, the high court had pointed out that written grounds of arrest were served on him as borne out by his signatures that amounted to substantive compliance of Section 19(1) of the PMLA.