Won’t insinuate political motive to ED: HC junks Sanjay Singh’s plea

While dismissing AAP leader Sanjay Singh’s plea against his arrest and remand in the excise policy-money laundering case, the Delhi High Court Friday said that in the ‘absence of any material’, it will not ‘insinuate or impute at this stage’ that ED’s case against Singh is ‘politically motivated’.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma said, ‘Without any evidence at this stage, this court records and would desist from imputing political affiliations or objects to a premier investigation agency as the reputation of a premier investigation of a country has a direct relation to the reputation of a country as a whole’.

On Singh’s argument that the case against him was politically motivated, Justice Sharma observed that this would involve deciding and holding that the investigation agency is ‘under the control of a political party’. The court said that it would not be part of either this ‘discussion or adjudication’ unless the matter in issue or material is placed before it for adjudication.

It, further, observed that the HC had decided over Singh’s plea solely on the basis of law, material on record and judicial precedents, as ‘any court should do in any other case of any other citizen on the basis of equality, before the law as it is most cherished goal of the constitution’. ‘At this stage…at a premature stage when the investigation is still to take place and it is at a nascent stage, this court does not find any ground to interfere with the order of remand or arrest,’ Justice Sharma said.

Addressing Singh’s argument that approver Dinesh Arora’s statement was taken ‘under pressure’, the HC said Arora’s statement was ‘recorded with due process of law’; whether it was extracted under pressure cannot be considered at this stage.

Justice Sharma underscored that the HC had examined the case from the ‘prism of enactments of law and judicial proceedings’ and has not got swayed by ‘political affiliations’ nor reads the law ‘coloured with the lense of political biases’. A detailed copy of the order is awaited.

Singh was arrested on October 4; he was remanded to five day ED-custody on October 5, which was extended till October 13 on October 10. Subsequently, on October 13, Singh was sent to 14-day judicial custody.