The Supreme Court indicated on April 05 that it may quash a money laundering case against former IAS officer Anil Tuteja and his son in connection with the alleged ₹2,000-crore liquor scam in Chhattisgarh, saying there were no proceeds of crime.
“We have gone through the ECIR [Enforcement Case Information Report] and the FIR lodged in the case. We find that there is no predicate offence and there are no proceeds of crime. If there are no proceeds of crime, then there is no money laundering. We will quash this complaint,” a Bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan told Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, who appeared for the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Mr. Raju, however, said there was enough material against the accused persons. It could even file a fresh ECIR if the court was inclined to quash the current one.
Senior advocate Siddharth Aggarwal, appearing for the father-son duo, said there were other accused persons in the case and the complaint against them should also be quashed.
The Bench told the advocate that if named in the instant complaint, the other co-accused could be granted relief. It not, they would have to take their own legal recourse.
Mr. Raju sought time to respond to the court’s query whether the other accused persons were also named in the present complaint along with the Tutejas.
The court listed the case for April 8.
In the prosecution complaint, the ED’s version of a chargesheet, filed in the special PMLA court, the anti-money laundering agency has said that the former IAS officer was the “kingpin” of the syndicate involved in illegal supply of liquor in Chhattisgarh.
The earlier Congress government in Chhattisgarh had alleged in the top court that the probe agency was “running amok” and trying to implicate then Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in the money laundering case.
