KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Friday orally observed that the enforcement directorate (ED) is not a ‘super investigating agency’, and its main responsibility is to trace the assets derived from the proceeds of crime, provisionally attach the property and ensure the prosecution of offenders.
The court made the observation when ED’s counsel submitted that as an investigating agency, it has to look into all the aspects of the 2021 Kodakara black money case, in which accusations were raised against some BJP leaders. The HC was considering a petition filed by the state president of AAP, alleging a lethargic attitude by ED in probing the case.
“The Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) can be invoked only when the FIR is registered for a scheduled offence. The state police will register the FIR under those offences mentioned as predicate offences in the PMLA and its jurisdiction will end after registering an FIR. ED’s job is limited to two enactments, one is the Foreign Exchange Management Act and the other is PMLA. What is their responsibility? They are not an investigating agency in that sense,” said Justice Gopinath P.
What the court said
Justice Gopinath P said, “ED’s duty is to attach or recover any property suspected to have been acquired with the proceeds of crime in the case of any offence listed in the schedule of the law. ED is not a super CBI or whatever it is.” The court observed while hearing a petition filed by AAP state president, alleging a lethargic attitude by ED in probing the 2021 Kodakara case.
Petition a clear abuse of law, says ED
“ED’s duty is to attach or recover any property suspected to have been acquired with the proceeds of crime in the case of any offence listed in the schedule of the law. ED is not a super CBI or whatever it is,” said Justice Gopinath P.
The central agency stated that there are allegations against numerous persons in the case.
The petitioner submitted before the court that even after three years, ED is still maintaining its earlier statement that a file has been opened and investigation is progressing. Nothing happened after that, the plea stated.
ED’s counsel Jaisankar V Nair submitted that in 2021, the agency conducted a preliminary investigation, and it registered an Enforcement Case Information Report in 2023.
A probe is in progress and efforts are being made to ascertain the proceeds of the crime as well as money trail in the case. A meticulous investigation is required in such cases to find out the money trail, the proceeds of the crime and persons involved and the perpetrators of offence of money laundering. The case under ED probe involved the offence of money laundering arising out of a scheduled offence of dacoity, the ED stated
Several persons have been questioned and their statements recorded, the agency said.
The ED said the petition was a clear abuse of the process of law. The PIL was neither maintainable in law nor tenable on facts as the petitioner is in no way connected with the alleged crime. Besides, a third party like the petitioner had no locus standi to challenge the investigation by a competent authority under the garb of a PIL, it stated.
The case pertains to the alleged highway robbery in Thrissur’s Kodakara on April 3, four days ahead of the 2021 Kerala assembly election. The complainant had told the police that Rs 25 lakh was looted from his vehicle. However during investigation, it came to light that there was a total of Rs 3.5 crore in the vehicle and the entire money was looted.
According to the prosecution, of the Rs 3.5 crore, only Rs 1.27 crore could be retrieved. There were allegations that the money was meant for the BJP’s assembly election campaigning.