NEW DELHI: In a surprising turn of events in the Supreme Court on Friday, the Enforcement Directorate termed its own counter-affidavit “fishy” and sought to disown it.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan was hearing an appeal of Arun Pati Tripathi, an Indian telecom services officer, challenging the October 25, 2024 order of the Chhattisgarh High Court denying him bail in connection with the Chhattisgarh liquor scam.
“In this particular case, there is something hanky-panky as far as my department is concerned. Without consultation, a half-baked counter-affidavit has been filed even before we made an appearance,” Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju appearing for the ED made the startling submission to the SC bench.
Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora, appearing for the petitioner, argued that this appeared to be a strategy to keep the accused in jail. Opposing this, the ASG replied, “There is something fishy in the filing of the affidavit. It was filed without being vetted by the investigating agency, without even referring to the facts.”
The surprised bench observed, “The counter must have been filed by your Advocate on Record (AOR). You are raising doubts on your AOR.”
But the ASG said that the AoR cannot be blamed as the affidavit came from the ED, and that some miscommunication has happened. The ASG said he has told the ED Director to institute a departmental inquiry.
The court fixed the matter for final hearing on February 5.