ED opposes Vadra plea in Delhi HC

Enforcement Directorate on Thursday opposed a petition filed by businessman Robert Vadra in the Delhi High Court challenging a trial court order that summoned him in a money laundering case linked to a land deal in Haryana’s Shikohpur.

The counsel for the investigating agency argued before Justice Manoj Jain that Vadra’s petition was based on a false legal submission and should therefore be dismissed with costs.

The agency countered the submission by Vadra’s lawyer, Senior Advocate Abhishek Singhvi, who argued that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has no jurisdiction to probe the case as the offences filed against the petitioner under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act were not “scheduled offences” under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act at the relevant time.

Singhvi said the land deal admittedly happened between 2008 and 2012, and the offences forming the basis of the ED case were only included in the schedule in 2013 and 2018.