Sanjay Singh (born 22 March 1972) is an Indian politician, activist, national spokesman for Aam Aadmi Party, a member of the Rajya Sabha from Delhi. He was convicted in a 2001 protest case and was later given bail.[1] In October 2023, he was arrested by Enforcement Directorate on allegations of bribery and liquor scam. After 6 months of custody, he was released on bail by Supreme Court.[2] The court castigated the police that nothing was recovered.[3] He was the first to be bailed out, out of several AAP leaders who were arrested, such as Satyendra Jain, Manish Sisodia and Arvind Kejriwal. The order became a case study in legal circles on how the court evaded directly ruling against the central government.[4]
Sanjay Singh | |
|---|---|
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| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha | |
| Assumed office 28 January 2018 | |
| Chairman | Venkaiah Naidu (2018–2022) Jagdeep Dhankhar (2022–) |
| Preceded by | Karan Singh |
| Constituency | Delhi |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 March 1972 Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India |
| Political party | Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) |
| Other political affiliations | Samajwadi Party (until 2007) |
| Spouse | Anita Singh |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Diploma in Mining Engineering |
| Profession |
|
| Website | sanjaysingh |
He was active with Arvind Kejriwal in his campaigns from the Right To Information campaign in 2006 to the IAC movement led by social activist Anna Hazare.
Career
Activism
He formed the Azad Samaj Seva Samiti in Lucknow in 1994. He claims to have worked towards providing employment opportunities to the poor.
He has been a fellow companion of socialist leader Raghu Thakur of the Democratic Socialist Party and participated in various welfare and socialist conferences and movements along with him. Singh also proffered his services for disaster relief operations in Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu and Nepal.
Aam Aadmi Party
Singh is a founder member of Aam Aadmi Party. During Delhi 2020 elections he was made the campaign in-charge along with Pankaj Gupta who was made the campaign director.[5]
Career as MP
In January 2018, Singh was elected as a Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha from Delhi.[6]
His career as an MP has been marked with several controversies often due to his penchant for creating a nuisance or due to his convictions and court cases. On the passing of the 2020 Indian agriculture acts in the Rajya Sabha, Sanjay Singh along with seven other members were suspended from the Rajya Sabha for their unruly behavior in the house for tearing documents, breaking mics and heckling the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.[7][8] Three years later, in 2023, he was again suspended from Rajya Sabha for entire monsoon session by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar due to 'repeatedly violating the directions of the chair'.[9]
Singh raised concerns related to child deaths, child trafficking, stringent punishments for sexual abuse of children amongst others in parliament. He was felicitated with the PGC Award by UNICEF India in 2020 for his efforts.[10]
Singh was elected again as a Member of Parliament in January 2024.[11]
Cases
In 2016, he accused Bikram Singh Majithia, the then Revenue Minister for Punjab, for being a "drug dealer".[12] In turn, Majithia filed a defamation suit against him, Arvind Kejriwal and Ashish Khetan.[13] Later, AAP president Arvind Kejriwal apologised to Majithia for his party's slander against him.[14] As of 2022, Singh admitted in the court that he stands by his statement.[12]
In 2019, he received a notice from Ahmedabad Court for his allegations during the Rafale deal controversy.[15] In 2017, Singh was slapped by a woman worker of the AAP as the party did not allow her to raise a voice against corruption during ticket distribution.[16]
In January 2023, a special court in Sultanpur of Uttar Pradesh convicted him and sentenced 3 months of jail term in a 2001 case. He is currently out on bail.[17]
Delhi Liquor Scam
He is also an accomplice in the Delhi Liquor scam alongside Manish Sisodia and Arvind Kejriwal. He has been named in the chargesheet filed by ED in the court.[18] In October 2023, he was arrested by the ED for the scam, was lodged in Tihar Jail and was given a bail in April 2024.[19]
See also
References
External links
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