Lagatar24 Desk
Ranchi, Oct.23: The Supreme Court, while hearing the bail plea of former Jharkhand minister Enos Ekka, has sought a response from the central government. A bench of Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice JK Maheshwari has issued notice to the Central Government and asked it to respond by November 8.
“Issue notice, returnable on November 8, 2021. The Respondent-State shall be served through the concerned standing counsel,” the bench said in its recent order.
Notably, Enos Ekka is serving a seven-year sentence in a money laundering case. Challenging the order of the Jharkhand High Court, he filed an appeal in the Supreme Court.
A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Ranchi had sentenced Enos Ekka to seven years imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs 2 crore in a money laundering case. Enos Ekka challenged the High Court’s order of 24 August 2020 in the Supreme Court, in which he was denied bail. The matter was heard in the Supreme Court today and the Center was asked to respond.
He had filed a bail petition in the Supreme Court for a case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The special CBI court has sentenced Enos Ekka to five years imprisonment in the case of disproportionate assets also. ED’s investigation found a case of money laundering amounting to Rs 16.83 crore on Enos Ekka. The ED has seized several properties of Ekka who was a minister in the Madhu Koda government between 2006 and 2008.
It is to be known that Enos Ekka is also serving a life sentence in the Para teacher murder case. In the year 2009, the CBI had registered a case of disproportionate assets against Enos Ekka. Based on the CBI chargesheet, the Enforcement Directorate had registered a case of money laundering.
“The court convicted Anosh Ekka for being guilty of offences of money laundering to the tune of ? 20,31,77,852 as defined under Section 3 of the PMLA and punishable under Section 4 of the PMLA,” the ED had said in a statement after his conviction.
