Mann, Oppn leaders meet Sanjay Singh’s family

Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday met the family members of Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh in Delhi to express his solidarity following the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader’s arrest on Wednesday.

Several opposition party leaders accompanied Mann during which they slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the arrest of Singh by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with its money laundering probe into irregularities in Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.

Addressing media personnel outside Singh’s residence, Mann said that “it was in the nature of BJP” to threaten political opponents.

“If people do not give them mandate, they use ED to threaten the MLAs of other parties and buy them to hold bye-election and reverse the mandate of the people. Under the same trend, our vocal MP Sanjay Singh has been arrested by the ED,” he said.

On Wednesday, ED arrested the AAP leader as part of its money laundering investigation in the excise policy case. A day later, a Delhi court granted ED five-day custody of Singh. In its charge sheet, ED alleged Singh played a key role in the formulation and implementation of the now scrapped excise policy. It claimed that the policy had favoured several liquor manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. Singh, on the other hand, has termed the charges “false and baseless”.

The other opposition leaders who also visited Singh’s family included Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena, Rajiv Ranjan Singh of Janata Dal (United) and Javed Ali Khan of Samajwadi Party.