'One-sided crackdown on Opposition...': AAP's Sanjay Singh targets Enforcement Directorate, Centre

New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh on Thursday accused the Modi government of increasingly misusing the Enforcement Directorate against opposition leaders and said this is a "major threat" to democracy. He made the remarks in a notice he raised in Rajya Sabha during Zero Hour. The development came on a day when Congress president Sonia Gandhi appeared before the Enforcement Directorate here for questioning in a money laundering case related to the National Herald newspaper.

Earlier, the ED had arrested Delhi minister Satyendar Jain in a money laundering case.

"Cases are being registered arbitrarily by the central agency (ED) against Health Minister Satyendar Jain and leaders of the Opposition... In the last 14 years, the Enforcement Directorate has registered more than 16,000 cases but could prove the charges against only 15 people," Singh stated in his notice.

The "increasing political misuse" of the central agencies is "a major threat" to democracy, he said.

"The increasing misuse of the central probe agency Enforcement Directorate and the one-sided crackdown on opposition leaders raises a question mark on the functioning of the agency," he added.

Jain, 57, was arrested by the ED on May 30 under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). He remains in judicial custody.