A single judge bench of Justice Amit Sharma issued notice to the ED and listed the matter for July 2. The Delhi High Court Friday sought the Enforcement Directorate’s stand in the regular bail plea of Chanpreet Singh – who allegedly managed ‘funds’ for the Aam Aadmi Party’s campaign during the 2022 Goa assembly polls – in the excise policy case. A single judge bench of Justice Amit Sharma issued notice to the agency and listed the matter for July 2. Singh, who was arrested by the ED on April 12, moved the HC after the trial court denied him bail on June 6. He is presently in judicial custody. Special Judge Kaveri Baweja of Rouse Avenue Courts while rejecting Singh’s bail plea had said, “…the serious nature of allegations and role played by the applicant (Singh) as revealed during investigation, his connection with the activities relating to use of the alleged proceeds of crime within the meaning of Section 3 of the PMLA and the oral and documentary evidence collected in support of the same and as placed for perusal of the court, this court is of the considered opinion that even if the rigors and restrictions contained U/s. 45 of the PMLA are viewed and construed reasonably, the prosecution has still been able to show a genuine and prima facie case for involvement of the applicant in commission of the alleged offence of money laundering.” Singh in his plea before the HC has said that the special judge dismissed Singh’s bail application “without considering” that the predicate offence is weak, that there are similarly placed co-accused who were never arrested during the investigation, and no link has been established between Singh and the AAP, among other grounds. “The arrest of the Petitioner (Singh) is based on the statements recorded by the investigation agency and there is no credible evidence or witness on whose instance even a prima facie guilt of the Petitioner/ accused can be established. That the witnesses whose statements have been recorded are themselves questionable as they are admittedly hawala operators…” the plea filed by advocates Chirag Madan and Ravleen Sabharwal submits.

Singh has further alleged that the agency’s whole case is based on the statement of witnesses who are his “seniors” by virtue of their age as well as in professional capacity. Singh has claimed that the statements of such witnesses are “not reliable at this stage” and will have to be tested during trial. Singh has claimed that the agency has “erred” by following a “pick and choose method” while arresting the accused persons wherein no pattern/formula has been followed and the “hawala agents have been named as credible and reliable public witnesses on whose testimony/ statement” Singh has been arrested. Singh was earlier arrested by the CBI in May 2023 for the predicate offence (criminal conspiracy under IPC and offence relating to public servants being bribed under the Prevention of Corruption Act). He was subsequently granted regular bail by the trial court on July 22, 2023, in the CBI case. The ED has alleged that the money reached Goa via a network of hawala transactions run by informal cash couriers – known colloquially as angadiyas – with alleged links to AAP functionaries, members of the South Group, and Chariot Productions Media Pvt Ltd, a firm engaged by the party for its election campaign in Goa. The ED has alleged that during the probe, it found that many vendors engaged for outdoor campaigns by Chariot Media made “part cash part bill” payments and the employee of an angadiya operator had delivered cash to them. After a raid by the Income Tax department in January 2022 at the Goa office of an angadiya operator, some “documents, chits and slips” were seized, which led the agency to conclude that approximately Rs 45 crore had been transferred through hawala transactions to Goa. The ED said that in subsequent disclosures, an employee of an angadiya operator claimed that he handed over a large amount of cash to three people, including Singh. The ED said that as per the seized records, Singh collected Rs 17.38 crore over 18 occasions from the employee of an angadiya operator from August 2021 to January 2022. As per call detail records, calls on multiple dates exchanged between them match with the dates mentioned in the data seized by the IT department as the date of cash collection, the ED alleged.