HC relief for Anil Parab in money laundering case till March 20

MUMBAI: In a relief for Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Anil Parab, the Bombay high court on Tuesday asked additional solicitor general Anil Singh to restrain the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials from taking any coercive action against him till March 20

MUMBAI: In a relief for Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Anil Parab, the Bombay high court on Tuesday asked additional solicitor general Anil Singh to restrain the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials from taking any coercive action against him till March 20.

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Parab had approached the HC seeking protection in a money laundering case registered by the ED involving Sai Resort NX at Dapoli in Ratnagiri district.

The HC was informed that after the ED had arrested Sadanand Kadam, an alleged close aide of Parab, a tweet was posted indicating Parab would be the next one to be arrested by the agency and hence he was apprehensive and approached the court for protection and quashing of the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR).

A division bench of justice Revati Mohite Dere and justice Sharmila Deshmukh, which was hearing Parab’s petition, was informed by senior advocate Amit Desai that Parab had been summoned by the ED, however, as Kadam had been arrested on appearing pursuant to summons issued by the agency and there was an apprehension that the ED would do the same with Parab and hence, he needed protection.

The bench was told that a tweet by BJP leader Kirit Somaiya following the arrest of Kadam had indicated that Parab would be the next to be arrested. “Parab is a leader of the opposition party and he is also strategising the constitution bench matter (referring to the Supreme Court case challenging the manner in which the Uddhav Thackeray government was ousted),” Desai said, justifying the need for protection.

Desai submitted that the summons was in connection with an ECIR registered following a criminal complaint which alleged violation of the Environmental Protection Act, Coastal Zone Regulations and offence of cheating under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code.

Referring to the complaint, the advocate said that though the magistrate was yet to take cognisance of it, the ED registered the ECIR claiming that the land at Dapoli worth ₹2.74 crore and the resort on the land was valued at ₹7.46 crore were funded through criminal activities.

He submitted that if the ED was registering ECIRs without ascertaining the offences, there was a serious problem. “There has to be a predicate offence, but there has to be some determination by the agency on the offence on the preliminary enquiry,” Desai argued.

Opposing the petition, the additional solicitor general said that Parab could file for anticipatory bail before the special PMLA court and there was no reason to grant him any interim relief by the high court.

Desai then submitted that the magistrate had only taken cognizance of the complaint with respect to violation of environmental laws and not the IPC offences and the order was challenged before a sessions court. The bench was told that the sessions court had set aside the order issuing process against Parab.

After hearing the submissions, the bench said it was not passing any order of no coercive action against Parab, but asked the ASG to inform the ED officers to refrain from taking any coercive action against the former minister till March 20.