Excise policy case: Delhi court extends Sanjay Singh's ED custody by 3 days

New Delhi, Oct 11 (IANS) A Delhi court on Tuesday extended AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh's ED custody by three days in connection with a money laundering case pertaining to the now-scrapped excise policy.

He was presented before Special Judge MK Nagpal of Rouse Avenue Court, on expiry of his five-day ED custody. 

The court granted a three-day custody of Singh to the financial probe agency.

The ED souught further custody on the grounds that his behaviour was totally non-cooperative with regard to the source of acquisition of some confidential documents of ED pertaining to this case. 

Other grounds on which the ED sought his 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. The court was also told that Singh failed to tell the whereabouts of his earlier mobile phones and he is also to be further questioned about some fresh evidence, which has surfaced during the course of investigation about the demand of another amount of said Rs. 4 crore by a close associate of the accused from one liquor businessman of Punjab. 

Besides, the ED said that further questioning of the accused after the fresh seizure of above digital data, the data already recovered and also with regard to the above fresh discoveries of facts is must to bring this ongoing investigation to a logical end. 

It was further submitted that the digital data of around 200 GB has been recovered during the course of fresh search and the same is yet to be analysed and the task of confrontation of accused with the said digital data is yet 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. 

In a dramatic turn of events, Singh claimed before the judge that he was told by ED that he was being taken somewhere else from its office. 

He said: "After you granted remand (to ED) on the last date of hearing, at 10 at night, I was told that I was being taken somewhere else. I asked why they didn't inform the court. 

"They said there was some issue of chemical pesticide… I told them I won't go outside without the court's order. They asked me to give that in writing." 

He further told the court that the next day they said the same thing. They had some "ulterior motive". 

"I asked what happens if I am killed in an encounter, who will be responsible? They said they will be responsible. What's the point of responsibility when I am dead. Again and again, I asked for court's order,” Singh told the judge. 

The judge then asked the ED why it wanted a written statement from Singh about his reluctance to leave its office. However, the ED rejected Singh's allegations. 

"You should not take him away without the court's order," the judge said. 

While granting custody, the judge directed the IO to ensure that all the digital data is analysed in three days along with interrogation and confrontation. 

Moreover, the judge said tht Singh's questioning will be conducted at a place having CCTV coverage and directed the ED to preserve that CCTV footage. 

The court directed Singh to not speak to media while being produced, saying it creates security problems. The judge also directed journalists not to ask him questions. 

The judge, after hearing the arguments, extended Singh's custody till October 13. 

The financial probe agency on October 4 arrested Singh after carrying out searches at his residence in the North Avenue area.

According to a top ED officer, Singh was arrested under Sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).