PMLA case: SC seeks ED’s response on bail plea of Yadav Singh

Noida Authority’s former chief engineer Yadav Singh has been chargesheeted in an alleged money laundering case.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) was on Thursday directed by the Supreme Court to respond to the bail plea of former Noida Authority chief engineer Yadav Singh, chargesheeted in an alleged money laundering case.

The Uttar Pradesh government had in 2014 removed Yadav Singh as the engineering chief with three industrial authorities Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna expressway after income tax raided found some unaccounted assets.(HT File Photo)

A bench comprising Justices S A Bobde and L N Rao issued notice to the ED and asked it to file a reply on the plea within two weeks.

During the hearing, Singh’s counsel contended that he should have been enlarged on statutory bail by the Allahabad Hight Court since the charge sheet was not filed against him within the stipulated 60-day period.

The counsel referred to the apex court’s recent judgement granting ‘default bail’ to an accused in an alleged corruption case, which involved the issue of statutory bail due to the failure of the probe agency in filing charge sheet within the stipulated 60- or 90-day period.

He contended that high court had denied bail to Yadav on the ground that the ED had filed a charge sheet against him, but the final report was submitted before the lower court after expiry of the 60 days period.

Singh had approached the apex court challenging the order passed by Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court denying him bail in the case.

Singh, in his bail plea before the high court, had said that since the charge sheet was not submitted by the agency within the statutory period, he was technically entitled to bail.

But the high court had dismissed his plea considering the ED’s submission that the chargesheet was filed on time.

In 2015, the ED had slapped money-laundering charges against Singh, who was the engineer-in-chief of the Noida Authority, Greater Noida Authority and Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority, on the basis of an FIR lodged by the CBI.

Earlier, an Income Tax raid in November 2014 had revealed that Singh’s assets were hugely disproportionate to his income, following which he was suspended by the then Uttar Pradesh government.

The Allahabad High Court had, in July 2015, directed the CBI to investigate the case stating that the allegations were most serious.