ED Requests Supreme Court To Remove Bansuri Swaraj's Name From List Of Appearances For ED In Sanjay

The Directorate of Enforcement told the Supreme Court today that Advocate Bansuri Swaraj's appearance (on behalf the agency) has inadvertently crept into the order passed yesterday to Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh in the Delhi Liquor Policy case.

The matter was mentioned by ED counsel Zoheb Hossain before a Bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who was sitting in a Special Bench with Justices MM Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi. It may be recalled that Sanjay Singh was granted bail yesterday on ED's concession in the "peculiar facts" of the case.

Hossain said, "inadvertent error crept into the recording of the appearance. Ms Bansuri Swaraj was neither engaged nor did she appear in the matter". While mentioning that a formal application had been moved and the error might be on the part of the central agency "mechanically" giving names of advocates, he prayed that the appearance may be corrected.Earlier in the day, AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj, in a post on social media platform 'X', shared a screenshot of the order containing the name of Bansuri Swaraj, who is a Bhartiya Janta Party candidate for the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat, and alleged that the BJP and ED are the same.

Case Title: Sanjay Singh v. Directorate Of Enforcement | Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No. 2558 of 2024

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday reserved verdict on the plea moved by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the money laundering case related to the alleged liquor policy scam case.

Kejriwal is currently in judicial custody. He was arrested on the night of March 21. On March 22, the trial court remanded him to six days of ED custody, which was extended by further four days. On April 01, he was remanded to judicial custody till April 15.

Earlier, Justice Sharma had denied any interim relief to Kejriwal and only issued notice on his plea challenging the arrest, as well as his interim application seeking immediate release.

In its response to the petition, ED has said that Kejriwal is the kingpin and the key conspirator of the excise scam and there were reasons to believe on the basis of material in its possession that he was guilty of the offence of money laundering.

ED has also alleged that the Aam Aadmi party was the “major beneficiary” of the proceeds of the crime and has committed the offence through Kejriwal.

“The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is the major beneficiary of the proceeds of crime generated in the Delhi Liquor Scam. Sh Arvind Kejriwal was and is not only the brain behind the AAP but also controls its major activities, he was also one of the founding members and was also involved in the decision making of the policy as evident from the statements of the witnesses,” the response said.

Arguments

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju told the Court that investigation qua the sitting CM is at a nascent stage. He also pointed that Kejriwal has not challenged the latest order remanding him to 15 days judicial custody. "He has challenged the first remand order. Please look at the remand order of 26 March. Today we are on April 3. On 28 March, second remand order is passed. That has not been challenged. Third remand order of judicial custody has not been challenged. So today his custody isn't pursuant to arrest or first remand order, it's pursuant to April 1 order which has not been challenged."