Rajya Sabha chairman Dhankhar refuses to allow jailed AAP leader's swearing-in

India's vice-president and Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar refused to allow jailed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh to be sworn in for his second RS term on Monday, under the pretext that the House's privileges committee is looking into the matter.

This is despite a Delhi court's ruling on 3 February allowing Singh to take oath as an MP, though he is currently in judicial custody. Singh was suspended from the Rajya Sabha in July 2023 for allegedly violating the Chair’s orders, and was arrested in October by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money-laundering case.

The ED, which is investigating the money trail in the now-scrapped Delhi liquor policy, told the court that Singh was part of a conspiracy to collect kickbacks from liquor groups.

Last month, Singh was elected unopposed for his second term in the upper House of Parliament, of which he first became a member in 2018.

In addition to Singh, the AAP's Swati Maliwal and Narain Dass Gupta were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha, with the two MPs taking oath in the House on 31 January.