Delhi excise policy case: ED raids aides of AAP MP

The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday conducted fresh searches, including at the premises of some people linked to Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh in New Delhi, in connection with its ongoing probe in the money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the Delhi liquor policy, officials sources said.

The Aam Aadmi Party leader also issued a Twitter video message, saying two of his associates -- Ajit Tyagi and Sarvesh Mishra -- are also being raided by the federal agency.

Sources said about half a dozen entities are being covered under the searches being undertaken under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The action was undertaken after some fresh inputs were obtained during the questioning of few accused involved in the case. The sources said some of the people who are being searched are linked to Singh.

The Rajya Sabha MP had sometime back written to the Union finance secretary seeking sanction to prosecute the ED director and an assistant director and investigating officer of the liquor policy case for allegedly making “false and derogatory claims” against him in connection with this probe.

ED sources had then said that the agency had filed an application, on April 20, in a court seeking to correct a “typographical/clerical” error related to the name of Sanjay Singh in its charge sheet.

The agency sources had said Singh's name appears four times in the charge sheet out of which one reference was wrong as his name was typed “inadvertently” in place of Rahul Singh's.

It is alleged by the ED and the CBI that the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 to grant licences to liquor traders allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it, a charge strongly refuted by the AAP.

The policy was subsequently scrapped and the Delhi lieutenant governor recommended a CBI probe, following which the ED registered a case under the PMLA.