VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, Oct 17: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the criminal writ petition of Kolkata-based businessman Amit Agrawal and asked him to approach the jurisdictional High Court, Jharkhand High Court for any relief in an ongoing money laundering investigation of cash for PIL against him.
He approached the Supreme Court against ED for arresting and prosecuting him in the cash for PIL case.
The division bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice J.K. Maheshwari said this petitioner under sections 482 and 227 of the CrPC, should approach the jurisdictional High Court.
“We are not inclined to entertain the petition under article 32 of the constitution. Leave it to the petitioner to move the jurisdictional high court for appropriate relief. We have not made any comment on the merit of the matter. If the petitioner is aggrieved by any order passed by the jurisdictional high court then the petitioner can take recourse of the available remedy,” the court observed.
The division bench rejected the arguments of Kapil Sibal who appeared for Amit Agrawal. Kapil Sibal had earlier appeared on the behalf of the Jharkhand government against PILs related to Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren availing mining lease and allegations against CM and his associates for laundering money through shell companies. Both the PILs were filed by Shiv Shankar Sharma before the Jharkhand High Court and Rajiv Kumar was his advocate. In the shell company-related PIL the name of Amit Agrawal surfaced.
Kapil Sibal contended that his client had filed an FIR against Rajiv Kumar for extorting money to clear his name. He said that Rajiv Kumar was arrested by Kolkata police along with Rs 50 Lakh cash that he had extorted from Amit Agrawal. But when the ED took this case it also named Amit Agrawal as an accused and charged him for getting Rajiv Kumar trapped to scuttle the PIL.
To prove his points Kapil Sibal cited newspaper reports related to arresting of Rajiv Kumar. Kapil Sibal said that as per the media report, Rajiv Kumar had frequent conversations with an official of the ED. Rajiv Kumar was in the habit of filing PIL to extort people.
But the division bench said that the petitioner should move before the jurisdictional high court.
“Jurisdictional high court will not do anything. They earlier heard the case on daily basis,” Kapil Sibal said and referred to a statement given by former Chief Justice of the High Court of Jharkhand R. Banumathi that one such advocate was in the habit of filing PILs.
The division bench disagreed with such statements and said that they were not commenting on the merit and they were just asking the petitioner to move to the right court for remedy.
‘We are talking about the merit,” the court stated, to this Kapil Sibal said that he was talking about the procedure and pressed the court to hear the matter. But the Supreme Court rejected the petition.
Notably, advocate Rajiv Kumar was arguing a shell company related to PIL 4290/21 and he was arrested on July 31 in Kolkata along with cash. His arrest was made on the basis of a written complaint of Amit Agrawal that Rajiv Kumar forced him to pay Rs. 10 Crore not to drag his name as well as his company in the PIL. Amit Agrawal also said that Rajiv Kumar also told him that amounts were required as he had to manage court and enforcement agencies officials. Kolkata police even issued notice to a senior official of ED.
About 10 days back the ED arrested Amit Agrawal and filed a prosecution complaint against him and Rajiv Kumar. ED stated that a substantial portion of the proceeds of the crime of an illegal mining scam in Jharkhand worth Rs. 1000 Crore, was laundered through several companies of Amit Agrawal.
The agency charged him with bribing Rajiv Kumar and getting him trapped to push the investigation away so that the concealed proceeds of crime do not surface. ED further stated that Amit Agrawal had an ‘unlawful extraneous purpose’ to prevent any adverse order of the Jharkhand High Court against him and his companies in ongoing shell companies related to PIL.
This PIL is primarily against Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and the petitioner sought a CBI inquiry alleging the CM and his associates for laundering tainted money through shell companies including that of Amit Agrawal.
ED stated that was not Rajiv Kumar who contacted him; rather, Amit Agrawal fraudulently established contact with Rajiv Kumar through Sonu Agrawal who is the terror funding accused of the NIA.
