Multi-crore drug racket: ED transfers special public prosecutor

The timing of the transfer order has raised eyebrows as the trial has just begun at a court in Patiala after the third chargesheet was filed on July 4.

Barely six months after the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) transferred its assistant director Niranjan Singh, who was probing money-laundering allegations in the multi-crore Jagdish Bhola drug racket, to Kolkata (an order that was later stayed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court), it has now issued transfer orders to Suresh Batra, its special public prosecutor in the case, to Bengaluru.

The timing of the transfer order has raised eyebrows as the trial has just begun at a court in Patiala after the third chargesheet was filed on July 4. The role of the special public prosecutor is of great significance in the case trial as there are allegations against various Punjab politicians, including Punjab revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia.

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Also, the probe is being monitored by the High Court. Batra has also been assisting the ED’s senior counsel in the High Court in a bunch of petitions relating to the drug racket. As many as five division benches of the High Court have recused to hear cases after the Supreme Court’s March 17 directions to the Acting Chief Justice of the High Court for listing all the connected cases before the same division bench so that they can be disposed of after comprehensive hearing within three months period.

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Batra reportedly received his transfer orders on Monday and was relieved of his duties in Chandigarh the same day to join at the Bengaluru office in around 15 days. Batra, ED’s legal adviser, has been associated with the drug racket case since the beginning and was appointed a notified special public prosecutor in the case in 2013.

Batra earlier worked as Central Bureau of Investigation’s public prosecutor for around eight years and had appeared in high-profile cases such as the 2008 Aarushi Talwar murder case and 2006 Nithari serial murders case of Noida.

Batra has also been appearing in the High Court in a multi-crore money-laundering case allegedly involving Chandigarh advocate Mukesh Mittal and his associates. This is the same case wherein ED’s Assistant Director in Chandigarh, Gopesh Byadwal, had reported of having received a call from Justice Hemant Gupta of the High Court to meet him to discuss the case. The Indian Express had reported on May 25 that as per ED’s official communication, Byadwal had received a call from Justice Gupta on March 16 which was made from the mobile of his secretary Dalbir Singh.

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