Tag: PMLA case

  • Will seek transfer of Mehbooba Mufti’s plea in PMLA case to Supreme Court: Centre to Delhi HC

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that it will seek the transfer of Mehbooba Mufti’s challenge to the Constitutional validity of a provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to the Supreme Court.

    In view of the Centre’s stand, a bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh adjourned the hearing on the former J&K Chief Minsiter’s petition till September 30.

    “Several petitions concerning various provisions and scheme of PMLA…are pending. Matter has been assigned to a special bench and parties have exchanged questions, one of which is directly in question here,” said Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the Centre.

    “Can we say you would prefer a transfer petition?” the court questioned the Solicitor General who responded, “Yes, you can. I intend to move a transfer petition. If they agree, we can do it together,” Solicitor General added.

    Additional Solicitor General SV Raju added that the questions before the Supreme Court included issues concerning the commencement of investigation under PMLA. Senior counsel Nitya Ramakrishnan, representing Mufti, said that the matter was “ripe for hearing” before the high court. “I’m happy if we can move (Supreme Court) together,” she added.

    On September 9, the court had listed Mufti’s plea for final disposal on September 14.

    Mufti, in her plea filed in March, has sought to declare section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act as void and inoperative, being unfairly discriminatory, bereft of safeguards, and violative of Article 20(3) of the Constitution.

    Section 50 of the Act empowers the authority, that is, officers of ED, to summon any person to give evidence or produce records. All persons summoned are bound to answer the questions put to them and to produce the documents as required by the ED officers, failing which they can be penalized under the Act.

    She has also challenged issuance of summons to her by the ED in a money laundering case and sought a stay which was refused by the court earlier.

    The 61-year-old leader, who was released last year after more than a year in detention following the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, was served notice to appear at the ED headquarters in the national capital.

    Initially, the ED had summoned Mufti for March 15 but it did not insist for her personal appearance at that time. Thereafter, she was summoned for March 22.

    Mufti, in her petition, said she has received summons from the ED under the provisions of the PMLA, purporting to call for ‘evidence’ on pain of punishment, whereas she is, to all intents and purposes, a subject of investigation.

    “She has not been informed if she is being summoned as an accused or as a witness. She has also not been informed of what she is being summoned in connection with and the scheduled offence under the PMLA which gave rise to the proceedings in respect of which impugned summons has been issued to her. The petitioner is not the subject of investigation, nor is she an accused, in any of the scheduled offences to the best of her knowledge,” the plea said.

    The plea claimed that ever since Mufti was released from the preventive detention following the formal abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, there have been a series of hostile acts by the State, against her, acquaintances and old family friends, who have all been summoned by the ED and a roving inquiry about her personal, political and financial affairs was made, in the course of which their personal devices have been seized.

    Earlier, Solicitor General and advocate Amit Mahajan, representing the ED, had said there was no need to issue a formal notice to them as they are already appearing before the court and said they will file a short note on the issue of question of law.

  • PMLA case: ED attaches Anil Deshmukh’s assets worth Rs 4 crore

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Friday said it has attached assets worth Rs 4.20 crore in connection with its money laundering probe in an extortion-cum-bribery case against former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh and his family.

    A provisional order has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) attaching a residential flat worth Rs 1.54 crore in Mumbai’s Worli, and 25 land parcels valued at Rs 2.67 crore in Dhutum village in Raigad district.

    The central probe agency alleged the attached properties are “beneficially owned” by Deshmukh.

    The 72-year-old NCP leader has skipped at least three Enforcement Directorate (ED) summonses for questioning in this case.

    His son Hrishikesh and wife were also summoned by the federal probe agency but they too refused to depose.

    The summonses were issued in connection with the criminal case registered under the PMLA related to an alleged Rs 100 crore bribery-cum-extortion racket in the Maharashtra police establishment that led to Deshmukh’s resignation in April this year.

    The ED claimed its probe found that “Deshmukh, while acting as home minister of Maharashtra, with dishonest intention has received illegal gratification of approximately Rs 4.

    70 crore in cash from various orchestra bar owners, through Sachin Waze, then the assistant police inspector of Mumbai Police (now-suspended).

    ” “Further, with the help of Delhi-based dummy companies, Deshmukh family laundered the tainted money of Rs 4.

    18 crore and projected it as untainted by showing the same as amount received in the Trust namely Shri Sai Shikshan Sanstha,” the ED claimed.

    It said the Worli flat is “beneficially owned” by Deshmukh but is registered in the name of his wife.

    “It was found that the entire payment (for the flat) was made through cash only in 2004, however, sale deed was done in the month of February, 2020 when Anil Deshmukh was home minister of Maharashtra.”

    “Deshmukh family has acquired 50 per cent ownership in Premier Port Links Pvt Ltd including its assets like land and shops totally valued at approximately Rs 5.34 crore (book value) by merely paying amount of Rs 17.95 lakh, that too after a substantial gap,” it said.

    Deshmukh has denied in the past any wrongdoing in these instances and his lawyers have called the ED action unjustified.

    He recently approached the Supreme Court with a petition seeking protection from any coercive action by the ED.

    He had said Param Bir Singh made the allegations against him after he was removed from the post of Mumbai Police Commissioner.

    The agency had last month raided Deshmukh’s premises in Mumbai and Nagpur apart from those of his aides and some others.

    It subsequently arrested two of his aides in this case, personal secretary Sanjeev Palande (51) and personal assistant Kundan Shinde (45).

    The ED case against Deshmukh and others was made out after the CBI booked him in a corruption case over Param Bir Singh’s allegations of at least Rs 100 crore bribery.

    After he was removed from the police commissioner’s post, Singh wrote to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray alleging that Deshmukh had asked Waze to extort over Rs 100 crore a month from bars and restaurants in Mumbai.

    The ED had earlier claimed in the court that Waze recorded his statement before the agency stating he “collected” Rs 4.

    70 crore cash from Mumbai bar owners and “handed it over” to Deshmukh’s personal assistant (Shinde).

    Waze is lodged in the Taloja prison in Navi Mumbai in connection with a NIA case related to the recovery of an explosives-laden SUV near the residence of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and the death of businessman Mansukh Hiran.

    The ED said Waze also recorded his statement, saying he attended a meeting at the official residence of the then home minister wherein he was given a list of bar and restaurant owners and was asked “to collect Rs 3 lakh per month from each bar and restaurant” in Mumbai.