HYDERABAD: The Enforcement Directorate told the Hyderabad High Court that there was no need to take prior permission for prosecution in the cases registered by the ED in the issues pertaining to YSRC chief Jagan Mohan Redyy’s disproportionate assets case.
As the Prevention of Money Laundering Act was special, there is no need of prior permission to prosecute the government officials in the said case, it noted.
ED counsel PSP Suresh Kumar made this submission before Justice B Siva Sankara Rao while considering the petitions filed separately by IAS officers Adityanath Das and BP Acharya, both were accused in the cases of land allotments to Hetero and Arabindo and water allocation to India Cements related to Jagan’s assets case.
Both the officers challenged the decision of the trial court in taking into cognizance for hearing without prior permission for prosecution by the Enforcement Directorate.
Petitioners’ counsels T Niranjan Reddy and T Pradyumna Kumar Reddy contended that there would be no validity if the trial court takes into cognizance for hearing without prior permission from the government.
In fact, the government has rejected permission in the cases registered by the CBI, and the same would be applicable in the present cases also. Prior permission was mandatory as per Section 197 CrPC, they added.
On the other hand, ED counsel Suresh Kumar submitted that the Money Laundering was a special Act, hence there was no need to implement the CrPC in the present cases. After hearing both sides, the judge reserved his order.