Classic case of abuse of power: Sanjay Singh to Delhi Court in Excise policy case

New Delhi, Oct 17

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that the law against money laundering cannot become an instrument of oppression as he challenged his arrest and remand in connection with a case pertaining to the now-scrapped excise policy.

Arguing before the Bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, Singh's counsel senior advocate Vikram Choudhari submitted that his arrest was illegal, malicious and a case of perversion of power. “This is a classic case of abuse and perversion of power,” he said.

The judge has adjourned the matter for submissions of ASG SV Raju on behalf of the ED on October 19.

On October 13, the High Court had sought the ED's response on Singh's plea .

Sharma had issued a notice on Singh’s plea to the financial probe agency. Special Judge MK Nagpal of Rouse Avenue Court had, the same day, sent Singh to 14 days’ judicial custody in the case.

Singh has challenged his arrest by and remand to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) saying that the grounds of arrest were not given to him by the financial probe agency.

On October 10, the ED had sought his further custody from Judge Nagpal on the grounds that his behaviour was totally non-cooperative with regard to the source of acquisition of some confidential documents of the ED pertaining to this case.

The other grounds on which the ED sought Singh’s custody were that he refused to acknowledge or sign the Call Detail Record (CDR) of his mobile number in respect to the calls appearing between the said number and the number of co-accused, Amit Arora.

It was further submitted that the digital data of around 200 GB has been recovered during the course of the fresh search and the same is yet to be analysed and the task of confrontation of the accused with the said digital data is not completed.

On the other hand, senior advocate Rebecca John, who argued for Singh, claimed that the ED had no ground for seeking extension of his custody in the case. "I (Singh) will not plead guilty to your fanciful allegations," she said.

The court had also directed Singh to not speak to the media while being produced, saying it creates security problems. The judge also directed journalists not to ask him questions. The financial probe agency on October 4 arrested Singh after carrying out searches at his residence in the North Avenue area.