The Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the enforcement directorate (ED) to conduct videography of examinations of various witnesses and others being summoned in multi-crore money laundering case allegedly involving city lawyer Mukesh Mittal.
The directions came from the bench headed by acting chief justice SJ Vazifdar on submissions from the defence lawyer, who submitted before the court that summons were being issued by ED to a number of persons to join investigations and they fear torture by the investigating agency while examination.
Hence, those being summoned be allowed to take a lawyer along or proceedings be videographed. The ED objected to the presence of lawyer during examination of witnesses but agreed that videography of the proceedings could be allowed. Following the submissions, the HC ordered that witnesses be examined in-camera. The high court was hearing the petition of Ajay Singh, who is Mittal’s clerk, who has approached the high court seeking quashing of the registration of enforcement case information report in 2009.
Last week, the ED had submitted an affidavit before the court stating that it had found illegal transactions worth `22 crore from a bank account belonging to one Lal Chand, the driver of the city lawyer, Mukesh Mittal.
Mittal, whose home was raided in January by local ED officials, is suspected to be the mastermind behind the conspiracy in illegal selling of a shop-cum-flat in Sector 20 belonging to an NRI, which triggered the money laundering investigations.
ED had submitted that several transactions worth hundreds of crores of rupees had been conducted through shell companies in Chandigarh and its periphery. The ED has also charged that documents of said illegal selling of property were prepared in Mittal’s office and his clerk, Ajay Singh, who is the petitioner, signed most of them, including the one delegating power of attorney.
Others named in the ‘tainted money’ deals are Ajay Singh and Parveen Kumar, both Mukesh Mittal’s clerks and Munish Kumar, Parveen’s brother and Mittal’s associates, Vineet Goyal and Nishant Goyal.
ED had submitted that several transactions worth hundreds of crores of rupees had been conducted through shell companies in Chandigarh and its periphery. The ED has also charged that documents of said illegal selling of property were prepared in Mittal’s office and his clerk, Ajay Singh, who is the petitioner, signed most of them, including the one delegating power of attorney.
Others named in the ‘tainted money’ deals are Ajay Singh and Parveen Kumar, both Mukesh Mittal’s clerks and Munish Kumar, Parveen’s brother and Mittal’s associates, Vineet Goyal and Nishant Goyal.