The Delhi Excise Policy case took a new turn on Wednesday, April 12, when senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh made serious allegations against the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Terming the financial probe agency as Enforcing Dictatorship, the AAP leader said that ED not only beats up and threatens people in its custody, it also threatens and humiliates the family, including wives and daughters of the arrested persons, to get a statement in the agency’s favour.
Singh also accused ED of making false cases under the pressure of the Central government and forcing people to give false statements. He cited examples of statements given in court by people who accused ED of taking false statements after forcing them.
It is interesting to note that ED is currently investigating the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy case, where one of the key accused, senior AAP leader and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, is under its custody.
ED is also investigating another key AAP leader, Satyendar Jain, who is also in jail in a case related to alleged money laundering.
Singh presented the medical records of Chandan Reddy, who oversees the retail liquor business of Trident Chemphar Limited; Arjun Pillai, who owns a Hyderabad-based infrastructure company and Sameer Mahendru, managing director of Indospirits, among others, while ‘exposing’ how ED is conducting its investigations.
Reddy, Pillai and Mahendru were all named in the Delhi Excise Policy case by the ED.
Talking about Reddy, Singh said, “As per a statement in the Delhi high court, Reddy said that he was beaten up by ED officials to such an extent that his eardrums burst.”
“Reddy also alleges that his wife and parents were also threatened,” Singh alleged.
“Reddy said that he was forced to give a statement exactly the way ED wanted it to read. He said that the investigation body warned him that if he failed to write whatever they wanted in the statement, then they would leave his family in such a condition that he wouldn’t be able to show his face anywhere,” Singh alleged.
Singh further said that according to Reddy’s statement in the HC, along with officers from the ED, he was beaten by people who did not belong to the ED. “Who were these goons who were with the ED during an investigation?” Singh questioned.
Citing the example of Pillai, Singh said that he was forced by the agency to give his statement. Singh also said that Mahendru gave it in writing to the court and that he was forced to give a statement that ED wanted.
Singh also cited Raghav Reddy’s case. Singh pointed out that Reddy, in his statement before the court, declared that he was pressurised by ED to include the names of political leaders in his statement.
Singh also alleged that ED threatened an accused by saying, ‘We won’t let your daughter go to college’.
The AAP leader said that based on these documents from the court and the medical records, it is proved that ED conducts investigations under the government’s pressure. It takes whatever statements they want from the suspects or accused by forcing them into submission through threat, Singh added.