Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Jaswant Singh withdrew his plea before the Supreme Court on Tuesday, challenging his arrest and remand by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case.
A bench comprising Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma granted the withdrawal, allowing the AAP leader the liberty to move the Punjab & Haryana High Court for bail.
On May 29, the Apex Court had refused to grant interim bail to the AAP MLA without first hearing the ED and the Central government.
The AAP leader has been incarcerated for over six months in connection with the ED’s money laundering investigation.
On May 24, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had refused to quash Singh’s arrest and remand, leading to the appeal before the Supreme Court. Singh, representing the Amargarh assembly constituency in Malerkotla, is accused of defrauding banks of ₹40 crore by misappropriating loans extended to his company. He alleged that his arrest violated Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
