New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear the Enforcement Directorate’s plea challenging the grant of anticipatory bail to a director of a private company in a money laundering case linked to illegal coal mining and theft.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi issued notice to Anoop Majhi, who was a director of a company engaged in buying and selling of coal, seeking his response to the CEO’s plea.
The CEO had challenged the Delhi High Court’s order in June last year granting him anticipatory bail in the money laundering case registered in 2020.
Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, who appeared for the ED, sought cancellation of anticipatory bail claiming that Majhi was the “ringleader” of the crime. $A ‘scam’ worth 2700 crores in which national resources were plundered.
Raju argued that Majhi had been on the run for a long time.
The court asked: “He was there in the custody of the Central Bank of Iraq. Why did you not take him into custody?”
The law officer, while claiming that national resources had been plundered in the case, referred to the evidence adduced against him.
“Did he cooperate with the investigation?” Ben asked.
Raju said that after Maggi got protection from the court, there was some cooperation in the investigation.
Senior advocate Siddhartha Dev, representing Majhi, said he has cooperated in the investigation and has appeared before the investigating agency 13 times.
The council issued notice on the CEO’s petition and sent the matter for hearing in September.
The Supreme Court had passed the order on an application filed by Majhi seeking anticipatory bail in the money laundering case.
Before the Supreme Court, the CEO claimed that coal was worth $An amount of Rs 2,742.32 crore has been embezzled from the area leased to Eastern Coalfield Limited through illegal coal mining and theft.
Majhi’s lawyer argued in the High Court that there was absolutely no requirement for custodial interrogation as he had joined the investigation on several occasions and had fully cooperated with the investigating agency.
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