New Delhi, March 16 (IANS) Congress Rajya Sabha member Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Monday described the excise policy case involving Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal as "unfortunate", alleging that the kind of misuse of investigative agencies seen in recent years had never happened before. He also questioned why most politically-sensitive cases involve Opposition leaders.
Speaking exclusively to IANS, Singhvi said that during the past several years, he had handled cases involving leaders from multiple political parties and found the situation deeply troubling.
"Over the last 5–7 years, I have handled cases for leaders from almost every political party. It is a very unfortunate situation that the kind of open, naked, and shameless misuse that has happened is not limited only to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act," he said.
"Whether it is the Enforcement Directorate, the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Income Tax Department, or other agencies -- such misuse by a government has never happened before," Singhvi added.
Referring to cases registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, he questioned why most politically sensitive cases appeared to involve Opposition leaders.
"Secondly, suppose there are 100 total PMLA cases -- I am giving just an example -- and assume that out of them only 10 have a political flavour, because 90 are usually not political. Then out of those 10, nine and a half will be against the Opposition. Why is that? Till today, you have not received an answer to this question. Instead, they talk about the remaining 90 cases, which are ordinary business-related cases," he said.
Speaking specifically about the cases involving Kejriwal, Singhvi said he had also represented other AAP leaders, including Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, in related matters.
"I have handled cases of Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh as well. Let me mention two aspects of Kejriwal's case. I do not have time to go into full detail because a lot of time has passed, and I do not even remember the exact year, but the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had called him in 2021 or 2022. From 2022 to 2024, the CBI never called him again," Singhvi said.
"Suddenly, in 2024, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested him. In 2021–2022, you called him for questioning, but you did not think it was necessary to arrest him. Arrest is a different matter -- you did not even summon him again," he added.
When asked about the status of the political alliance between Congress and the AAP, Singhvi said alliances often vary depending on political circumstances and can differ at the state and national levels.
"Now, alliances have different situations in different places. At present, they are not in an alliance. This is quite common in politics. It also happens that at the state level, you may completely fight against a regional party but remain together at the national level," he said.
"The Congress party has done this many times, and the Left parties have done the same. Similarly, Janata Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party have, at times, contested against each other at the state level while cooperating at the national level," Singhvi added.
--IANS
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