AAP Punjab MLA Jaswant Singh Withdraws Plea In Supreme Court Challenging ED Arrest

This comes after the Punjab and Haryana High Court had on May 24 dismissed Singh's plea challenging the legality of arrest. Singh contended that the material in possession against him, including the memo of arrest and the grounds of arrest had been sent to the adjudicating authority under the PMLA two days after the arrest, whereas it should have been sent immediately.

Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal and Justice Kirti Singh of the high court stated that under Section 19 (2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, it is nowhere specified that the material should be sent on the day of arrest as the term used is "immediately after arrest”.

On May 29, the Supreme Court refused to grant ex-parte interim bail to  Singh to campaign for the ongoing Lok Sabha polls without hearing the ED's arguments. The vacation bench comprising Justices Sanjay Karol and Aravind Kumar was hearing a challenge to the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which upheld his arrest by ED.

Background

Jaswant Singh was booked under PMLA for allegedly being a director and guarantor of a company M/s TCL, which had obtained loan and credit facilities of over Rs.46 crores.

The amount is alleged to have been diverted to other companies, contrary to the terms and conditions of extending the credit facilities. A sum of Rs.3.12 crores is also stated to have been diverted into the personal account of the AAP leader.

The account of M/s TCL was declared as fraud on February 9, 2018 based on a forensic audit report, and the matter was reported to RBI. The petitioner had been issued a summons to join the investigation on several occasions but he did not appear before the investigating agency.

Singh was arrested by ED in November, 2023.

Case details: Jaswant Singh versus Union of India & Anr., SLP(Crl) No. 7755/2024