Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Sep 7: Three accused, Manoj Jayaswal, Ramesh Jayaswal and Abhijeet Infrastructure Ltd., who were accused of misappropriating the coal block allocation letter and laundering around 650 crore rupees, have been discharged by a special court.
The Abhijeet Group got the funds as share application funds and term loans from banks after obtaining the allocation of the Brinda, Sisai and Meral Coal blocks from the Ministry of Coal.
Before Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj, Advocate Vijay Agarwal represented both Manoj Jayaswal and Abhijeet Infrastructure Ltd. In any case being brought by the Directorate of Enforcement regarding coal block allocation, this is the first instance of a discharge being granted.
The ED had stated that the company allotted shares at a premium that was many times the value of the shares, inflating its net worth from 30 crores prior to the coal block allocation to about 750 crores afterwards. Based on the inflated net worth, the company allegedly obtained sizable loans from banks.
Abhijeet Group’s net value decreased to negative 69 crores in 2018 as a result of the block’s de-allocation, according to the allegations.
The ED’s case resulted from a CBI investigation into Abhijeet Infrastructure Ltd’s use of false documents to acquire the allocation of the coal blocks Brinda, Meral and Sisai, as well as the misrepresentation of its status to the Screening Committee, the Ministry of Steel and the Ministry of Coal.
The CBI has charged Manoj Kumar Jayaswal of the Abhijeet Group in six cases, and the ED has charged him in nearly as many cases.
Advocate Vijay Agarwal argued on behalf of the accused that the ED’s case in the matter is without merit because the ED lacks the authority to act based on a presumption that an offence has been committed; rather, the money laundering offence, which the ED is empowered to investigate, must necessarily be contained within the parameters of the scheduled offence.
It was further asserted that the ED’s attempts to establish a case outside the parameters of the scheduled offence or by presumption must necessarily dissolve and crumble due to the absence of any base to support the case’s superstructure.
Additionally, attorney Vijay Agarwal noted that there is only one circumstance in which it is possible to claim that proceeds of crime were made from an allotment and that is when the coal from the block is taken, sold and the money so made is put to use.
