P Chidambaram moves to Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court’s order for denying him the bail
NEW DELHI| On Monday the Enforcement Directorate approached the Delhi High Court requesting for the rectification of an “inadvertent” error in the order denying bail to former Union finance minister P Chidambaram in the INX Media money laundering case.
The ED in its written application urged the court to correct ‘accidental slip or inadvertent error’ in the November 15 verdict passed by Justice Suresh Kait. Justice Kait has reproduced some paragraphs from a 2017 Supreme Court order rejecting bail to Delhi based lawyer Rohit Tandon in a money laundering case, as per the application.
The error found was on the 41st page, four paragraphs of the judgment given by Justice Kait. The judge referred to a 2017 high court order in the Rohit Tandon versus ED case in which it was observed that “there is a provision of trial by special courts in case of ”schedule offences” under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Probability of a joint trial would take place under Section 44 of the PMLA only when a charge sheet is filed upon completion of the investigation and the case is committed to a special court.
The ED, in its plea filed through the central government’s standing counsel Amit Mahajan and advocate Rabat Nair, sought correction of the errors which “inadvertently and due to accidental slip have crept in paragraphs 35, 36, 39 and 40 of the order.”
“It appears that the factual assertions which have been attributed to the respondent ED as part of its submissions form part of one of the judgments which were relied upon by it during the course of arguments.
“Inadvertently, it appears that the said factual portion of the judgment relied upon the ED instead of being quoted or summarised as the part of the relied upon judgments have been inadvertently/ accidentally referred to in the order dated November 15 as the factual submissions made by the ED,” the plea includes.
The ED clarified that it has not placed those facts as part of its submission in support of the argument for rejection of bail to Mr Chidambaram.
Rohit Tandon, who was arrested in 2016, is an accused in the demonetisation-related money laundering case. It said the facts of Rohit Tandon’s case are neither a part of the investigation papers of Mr Chidambaram’s case nor were remotely relatable to the probe undertaken by the ED in this case.
The senior Congress leader moved to Supreme Court on Monday challenging the Delhi High Court’s Friday order denying him bail in the money laundering case.
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