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By Pankaj Jain: Aam Aadmi Party leader (AAP) Sanjay Singh has alleged that the Enforcement Directorate used torture tactics to maliciously force witnesses to submit false confessions in the Delhi Excise Policy case.
He talked about six such witnesses, who have approached the courts with accusations of being subjected to third-degree torture and threats against their loved ones in order to coerce them into signing false statements tailored to the ED’s biased politically influenced agenda.
Sanjay Singh drew a parallel between the ED’s use of coercion to extract forced statements and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s gas chambers. Demanding an immediate end to the ED’s unlawful and violent tactics, he called for a comprehensive investigation into the allegations of political interference by the BJP.
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The Rajya Sabha MP alleged a person named Chandan Reddy was beaten black and blue by ED sleuths to obtain a false statement during interrogation, and he now fears he might suffer hearing loss.
“Chandan has moved the (Telangana) High Court complaining against the ED,” Singh told a press conference here, showing purported copies of Reddy’s medical certificate.
The MP said he will raise the matter before the parliament’s privilege committee, and present these documents. “These documents prove that the ED makes false cases under political pressure, defames governments and levels false allegations…There is no liquor scam.”
Senior AAP leader and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia was arrested by the ED on money laundering charges related to the excise policy case. He was also the city’s excise minister.
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Singh claimed that the alleged liquor scam accused Sameer Mahendru, Arun Pillai and three others have also complained against ED officials, accusing them of having obtained their statements under duress.
“I have been given privilege notice for raising abysmally low conviction rate of ED cases…I will now raise this issue before the privilege committee with documents so that ED officials are called and the truth about the complaints filed against them be ascertained,” Singh added.
He further alleged that some people who are not ED officials have been part of the agency’s investigation process.
“This is how the ED has become the enforcer of dictatorship. Even people who are not ED officials were present during Chandan Reddy’s interrogation. Who are these goons accompanying ED during their investigation? Arun Pillai, Sameer Mahendru, Bhusar Belgavi, Manaswami Prabhu and Raghav Reddy have even accused the ED of torturing them during interrogation,” Singh alleged.
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He claimed that former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia’s private secretary, Rinku, was also called for interrogation by the ED.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also took to Twitter to double down on the charges against the ED. “The allegations levelled by Sanjay Singh against the ED are very serious.”
However, the Delhi BJP refused these charges saying the AAP has grown “totally frustrated” by the repeated rejections of bail applications of its leaders Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain
BJP REACTS
“AAP leaders including Singh are scared that the evidence in the liquor scam case is building up and soon the law may catch up with Arvind Kejriwal himself,” claimed Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor.
The AAP leaders have all along tried to make a public perception that Manish Sisodia is innocent but have failed in doing so, Kapoor said.
“Now in sheer frustration, Singh has levelled allegations on an independent investigative agency with ‘dual intent’ to pressure it and go soft on Sisodia, and to create a public perception that ED is not acting fair,” Kapoor said in a written statement.
He claimed despite the efforts of the AAP to “vilify” the ED, they would not succeed in getting early bail for Sisodia.
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