NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought reply from journalist Upendra Rai, accused in a money-laundering case related to alleged extortion and dubious financial transactions on a plea of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) challenging the grant of bail to him.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde issued notice to Rai and sought his response on the ED plea which has challenged the order passed by Delhi High Court last year.
Rai was arrested on June 8, 2018, by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), soon after he secured bail in a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case related to alleged extortion and dubious financial transactions. The CBI had arrested him on May 3, 2018.
The ED had in the high court opposed Rai’s bail plea saying that merely because bail has been granted to him in the two predicate offences investigated by the CBI could not be the sole criteria to grant him the relief in the money-laundering case.
The high court had said that since Rai has already undergone more than one year of custody and there being no material placed on record to show that he has tampered evidence, it is a fit case of granting bail to him. Rai’s counsel had alleged in the high court that both CBI and the ED had been ‘playing with the liberty’ of his client and they have been adopting ‘vindictive approach’ towards him by allowing him to remain in custody even though no interrogation is required.
(With agency inputs)