Money laundering case hearing deferred

A special PMLA court in Mumbai on Monday deferred hearing on applications made by Asif Balwa, managing director of DB Realty Vinodkumar Goenka and Sanjay Kakade seeking cancellation of non-bailable warrants (NBW) issued against them in money laundering case.

The special PMLA judge A.S. Mahatme heard the arguments of one of the applicant’s lawyer for a brief period and posted further hearing on Tuesday. During the hearing, senior counsel Amit Desai argued that the NBW was issued without issuing any summons to the applicants.

He also told the court that the applicants came to know about the issuance of NBW through news reports and approached the court seeking pre-arrest bail as well as cancellation of NBW.

Advocate Desai further argued that the purpose of issuing summons or NBW is to secure presence of accused before the court and in the present case the accused have come before the court that nullifies the purpose of NBW and hence it should be cancelled.

After hearing arguments for brief period the judge asked the applicants lawyers to present their case on Tuesday.

Earlier, the court had refused to cancel NBW and the applicants had approached the high court seeking relief against the arrest. Following this the vacation bench of Justice A.S. Gadkari had referred back this matter to the PMLA court and asked it to decide the applications expeditiously.

The Enforcement Directorate had on March 30, filed a 11,500-page chargesheet naming Chhagan Bhujbal, his son Pankaj, nephew Sameer, corporates like DB Realty, Balwa group of companies, Neelkamal Realtors and Builders Private Limited, Neelkamal Central Apartment LLP and Kakade Infrastructure.

The agency has filed two FIRs against Bhujbals and others under the anti-money laundering laws, based on FIRs filed by the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau, to probe alleged irregularities in the construction of the state guesthouse ‘Maharashtra Sadan’ in Delhi and the Kalina land-grabbing case in Mumbai.