India‘s agency for investigating financial crimes has searched the home of a member of parliament from the opposition party due to suspicions of corruption.
Sanjay Singh, a member of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi, is the most recent party leader to be questioned by government agencies.
Officials are looking into a possible crime involving fraud that is connected to a recently canceled plan for selling alcohol in the state.
Delhi’s second-ranking minister, Manish Sisodia, was also taken into custody for the same incident in February.
The AAP has rejected the accusations and said that the BJP, which is in charge of the central government, is engaging in unfair political tactics.
The AAP is very sensitive on the topic of financial misconduct. They started as a big movement against corruption over 10 years ago.
The party often disagree with the BJP and wants to be seen as an important opposing group.
Officers from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) came to Mr. Singh’s house on Wednesday morning to ask him questions, according to the PTI news agency.
Authorities stated that they would also investigate other members of the AAP party who are connected to the situation.
Investigations started last August when India’s federal investigation agency CBI accused the Delhi government of showing favoritism towards specific liquor dealers who supposedly paid bribes. They later abandoned the plan.
According to the CBI’s investigation, the ED also filed a case under India’s money laundering law. In February, the CBI took into custody former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia for his involvement in the case. Despite denying the accusation, he is still being held in jail.
Mr Singh has not given any opinions about the raids that happened on Wednesday, but his party is sure that they won’t find anything.
“The ED raid happened because Sanjay Singh spoke out about the Adani problem and the illegal money invested in his company,” said Reena Gupta, spokesperson of AAP. They didn’t find anything before, and they won’t find anything today. We are not scared.
Ms Gupta talked about a report by an American investment company called Hindenburg Research. The report accused the Adani Group of cheating with their stocks and manipulating their accounting for many years. However, the group says that the accusation is not true.
Mr Singh kept talking about the problem in meetings with other politicians and asked for an investigation to look into the claims. He also requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to talk about the issue in the house.
Last year, the health minister of Delhi, Satyendra Jain, was arrested for being involved in a money laundering case. He claims that the accusations against him are not true and he is currently still in prison because a court in Delhi denied his request for bail.
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