A day after the Special 2G court discharged former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother in the Aircel-Maxis deal, the Enforcement Directorate swiftly approached the Supreme Court against release of attached assets to continue with the probe of money laundering against the duo. The court will hear the plea on Friday.
Special Public Prosecutor in the 2G case, senior advocate Anand Grover, got permission from the apex court to prepare an application in the morning. This was taken up by a Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar, Justices NV Ramana and DY Chandrachud at 2 pm.
The ED required urgent orders to block release of attached properties of Marans. "The whole object of probing money laundering charges against the accused will be defeated if the assets are allowed to be disposed off," argued advocate Prashant Bhushan, who represented the petitioner NGO, Centre for PIl, supporting the application moved by Grover.
The ED is probing alleged bribe of `742 crore paid by Malaysian-based Maxis Communications to the family companies owned by Kalanithi Maran. Going through the 400 odd pages order passed by the trial judge at the stage of framing of charge, the bench asked Grover, “In the sub-stratum of its order, if the court has held `742 crore to be not part of proceeds of crime, then no case of laundering is made out.”
Grover suggested that the trial judge did not consider the pending case against the accused under the Prevention of Money laundering Act to which the bench did not agree. “If the money laundered has not been found, then where is the offence made out.”
Grover admitted that he did not have enough time to study the order in detail and prepare an application. He approached the Court sensing an urgency as nobody knows when CBI will file its appeal. Sharing his past experience with the agency, he pointed out that the trial court against Airtel in the spectrum scam was not appealed by CBI for a year. When the appeal finally came, it was limited to expunging remarks made against CBI officers.
The Bench gave Grover time till Wednesday to file the application and posted the matter for hearing on Friday.