NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today dismissed a plea of journalist Upendra Rai which sought to restrain an Enforcement Directorate (ED) official from conducting probe against him in corruption and money-laundering cases.
The top court said that Rai's petition does not relate to the 2G spectrum allocation scam case pending before it and was hence not maintainable.
A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan, however, granted liberty to Rai to pursue any other remedy, if available.
"The present Civil Appeal concerns 2G matters and the interlocutory application preferred by Upendra Rai has no connection with the subject matter of this Civil Appeal. Such application is therefore not maintainable and is, accordingly, dismissed," it said.
During the hearing, Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, appearing for Rai, said since he had made certain allegations against ED official Rajeshwar Singh, who was probing the 2G scam cases, the ED and the CBI have lodged cases against him.
He said that court should restrain Singh from investigating cases against him as "we both had blood among us due to certain allegations I had earlier made".
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Singh, said identical allegations are being made time and again and the court has often protected the official from such averments.
Rohatgi said cases against Rai are related to corruption and the CBI has allegedly found Rs 100 crore in bank accounts which is the money made out of extortion.
"Cases were initially lodged against him by the CBI and not the ED. I have nothing to do with cases lodged against him," he said, adding that Rajeshwar Singh was often subjected to pressure by media houses, industrialist and other powerful persons as he was probing the high profile 2G case.
Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi, appearing for the CBI said that high court is already seized with the matter of Rai related to bail.
Ramachandran said that there are legal remedies available to him to approach high court for bail but "as a consequence of filing applications against Rajeshwar Singh, he harbours a grudge and false cases are lodged against me".
To this, the bench told Rai, "These all are separate cases lodged against you. It has nothing to do with the 2G case. We are here concerned with the 2G case only. It will be better if you file a separate petition to challenge the proceedings against you."
Earlier, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had opposed Rai's plea to restrain Singh from probing him.
Swamy had said that the Aircel-Maxis case was brought before the court through his petition and Rai in his plea had made some "scurrilous remarks" against ED officer Singh, who is probing the case.
He had also alleged that it was an attempt to delay the completion of probe in the Aircel-Maxis deal case.
Rai was arrested on June 8 by the agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at the Tihar Jail here, moments after he secured bail in a Central Bureau of Investigation case related to alleged extortion and dubious financial transactions.
Before that, he was arrested by the CBI on May 3 for allegedly indulging in dubious financial transactions, getting an airport access pass made by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) by furnishing false information, alleged extortion and manipulation of an Income Tax Department case against a Mumbai-bound businessman.
The ED had registered a money laundering case against him based on the CBI FIR.
In its FIR, the CBI has alleged that going by the value of transactions of over Rs 1 lakh each during 2017, Rai's accounts received Rs 79 crore while Rs 78.51 crore was debited from it during the period.