New Delhi, Sep 9 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea filed by the Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee — the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee — and his wife Rujira Banerjee, challenging the ED summons in a money laundering case linked to the alleged coal scam.
A bench of Justices Bela M. Trivedi and S.C. Sharma said that it did not find any substance in the challenge made by the high-profile couple to the summons issued to them under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
“All the persons summoned are bound to attend in person or through authorised agents as the officer may direct and are bound to state the truth upon any subject respecting which they are examined or make statements, and to produce the documents as may be required,” ruled the apex court.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Banerjee and his wife to appear for questioning. The duo had challenged the ED’s summons, contending that since both are residents of West Bengal, they should not be called by the anti-money laundering agency to appear before it in the national capital.
In its judgment, the Supreme Court said that it did not find any “illegality in the summons issued by the ED summoning the appellants (Banerjee and his wife) to its office at Delhi”, which also has the territorial jurisdiction, a part of the offence having been allegedly committed by them as alleged in the prosecution complaint.
“It is also not disputed that Abhishek Banerjee being a Member of Parliament has also an official residence at Delhi,” noted the SC.
In his plea filed before the apex court, Abhishek Banerjee said, “The party to which the Petitioner No.1 (Abhishek) belonged, comprehensively trounced the political party at power in the Centre, thereby giving justifiable cause to ‘target’ and ‘fix’ the Petitioner No.1, by misusing the Central Investigation Agencies.”
“It is not only against the basic principles of territorial jurisdiction, but could also result in absurd consequences and situations wherein the officers of the respondent agency situated in any state in India can summon any person residing in any other state, without any regard to the place of occurrence of offence, or the place of residence of the summoned person,” his plea contended.
In July last year, the top court ordered the ED to withdraw the Look Out Circular (LoC) issued against Banerjee and his wife, adding that the high-profile couple could travel abroad after informing the probe agency a week in advance.
The SC directed that the ED will issue “necessary orders” permitting the duo to travel overseas if a prior application is made by them.
–IANS
pds/dpb
Disclaimer
The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by TodayIndia.news and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.
Through this website you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of TodayIndia.news We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, TodayIndia.news takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.
For any legal details or query please visit original source link given with news or click on Go to Source.
Our translation service aims to offer the most accurate translation possible and we rarely experience any issues with news post. However, as the translation is carried out by third part tool there is a possibility for error to cause the occasional inaccuracy. We therefore require you to accept this disclaimer before confirming any translation news with us.
If you are not willing to accept this disclaimer then we recommend reading news post in its original language.
