MUMBAI: In a relief to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), a vacation bench of the Bombay high court on Wednesday stayed all further investigation, till further order, by the Mumbai police against the Central agency’s officers in a cheating FIR registered against a hotelier Jitendra Navlani.
The ED had approached the HC vacation court for urgent relief for a stay of the probe into a recent first information report (FIR) registered against Navlani which alleged his links with certain officers of the agency.
The Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) had on May 5 registered an FIR against Navlani for allegedly collecting Rs 58 crore from businessmen by promising them protection from any action by the ED.
The ED officers, however, have not been named as accused in the FIR.
Appearing for the agency, additional solicitor generals S V Raju and Anil Singh sought a stay of the probe. The agency also sought a transfer of the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation, seeking a "fair probe". Senior counsel Aabad Ponda appearing for Navlani supported the ED plea.
Singh said section 17 A of the Prevention of Corruption Act expressly bars any inquiry or investigation against the Central government officers unless there is prior approval and since ED officers are central government officers in the absence of any such approval, further probe ought to be stayed.
The HC prima facie accepting the ASG's contention, stayed all further probe and actions sought to be initiated in the FIR and directed that no coercive actions be taken against the officers of the ED performing their official legal duties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act .
The State Special Public Prosecutor Pradeep Gharat for State sought 15 days to file the state's reply. HC said a rejoinder be filed thereafter within a week and petition be listed after three weeks.
The ED petition had said that the surrounding circumstances under which the ACB registered the FIR “smacks of malafide” and an apparent and desperate attempt by the state machinery to “thwart the various investigations initiated by the officers of the ED against the high and mighty in the state, said the ED.
The ED had also said that if such “open ended’’ investigation is allowed to go on then it “will demoralise the officers and affect their morale.’’
The ED said as a premier agency which looks into several “heinous offences of money laundering’’ it is essential that it be permitted to perform its duty "without any fear or interference."
The ED has said that from several public statements and tweets made by senior leaders of the Shiv Sena party, including Sena party spokesperson Sanjay Raut, it contends that “it is evident” that the investigation by the state police has been started with obvious purpose and will not be unbiased or objective. The entire action of registering a criminal case is motivated to derail the investigation and allegedly keep the ED officers under threat of malicious and vexatious prosecution and to prevent them from exercising their legitimate statutory powers to unearth the offense of money laundering committed allegedly by several highly powerful political figures in Maharashtra, it said.
