The wife of Sandeep Singh, an assistant director at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly soliciting and accepting a ₹20 lakh bribe from a Mumbai jeweler, has filed a petition with the Bombay High Court to challenge her husband’s arrest.
Divya Singh is seeking a court declaration that her husband’s arrest was “illegal” and is requesting the quashing of the remand order issued by a city sessions court on August 9, which granted CBI custody until August 14. Sandeep Singh is currently in judicial custody.
In the petition, filed through advocates Sujay Kantawala and Mithilesh Mishra, Divya Singh contends that the arrest violated Section 35 of the Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which pertains to arrest without a warrant. She argues that the CBI failed to provide written grounds for the arrest, as required by law.
The petition asserts that Singh’s fundamental rights to life and personal liberty under Articles 21 and 22 of the Constitution have been infringed. It also alleges that the searches of Singh’s official and residential premises, conducted at midnight on August 7 without the presence of female officials, were improperly carried out. The searches, which resulted in the seizure of Singh’s official mobile phones and laptop, reportedly continued until 3 am on August 8.
Additionally, the petition claims that the First Information Report, written complaint, and remand application reveal that the criminal proceedings against Singh were initiated with mala fide intentions, aimed at seeking vengeance and falsely implicating him.
The petition argues that, given the charges against Singh, which are punishable by up to seven years in prison, the investigating agency should have issued a notice and allowed him to cooperate with the investigation. The notice, according to the petition, was not provided.
Divya Singh further contends that Singh’s custody was “grossly illegal and void” due to the failure to provide written grounds for his arrest and the alleged procedural violations prior to his remand.
The CBI launched the case against Singh on August 7 after a jeweler alleged that Singh had demanded a ₹25 lakh bribe, later reduced to ₹20 lakh, to avoid arresting the jeweler’s son in a money-laundering investigation. The CBI claimed that Singh was caught in a “trap” operation while allegedly accepting ₹20 lakh from an individual posing as an agent of a hawala operator in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar.
The ED has suspended Singh and is taking steps to transfer him back to his original department, the Income Tax Department. An ED official commented, “In line with our zero-tolerance policy towards corruption, the ED has initiated criminal action against Singh under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.”
