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Stating that the case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against now Cabinet Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal and 58 others was proceeding at a “snail pace”, a special court on Thursday said it will not allow further adjournments unless there is a compelling reason.
“The matter is five years old. The trial is proceeding at snail pace due to filing of various applications and lengthy arguments thereon,” the court said. It added that the adjournment application filed on Thursday was allowed as a last chance. “…subject to the direction that the accused shall co-operate in early disposal of discharge applications. It is made clear that unless there is compelling reason, the matter would not be adjourned henceforth,” the court said.
The ED had filed a case in 2016 probing alleged money laundering on the basis of complaints filed by state agencies. The complaints included a probe by the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) related to allegations that a developer firm was favoured for a project, for which land belonging to the Regional Transport Office in Andheri was handed over to the firm when Bhujbal was the deputy chief minister and the state minister for public works.
The special court on Thursday said the ED filed its first chargesheet in the case in April 2016 and a supplementary one in 2018, against a total of 59 accused under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
In 2021, another special court discharged the Bhujbals and other accused from the ACB case. Based on this order, the accused filed discharge applications in the ED case stating that since there is no predicate offence, the case cannot continue as there are no proceeds of crime to charge them with.
The discharge pleas of various accused are pending on this ground and senior lawyers have been appointed by them to represent their case. On Thursday, lawyers for the accused sought time to argue the discharge pleas by stating that the senior counsels were not available, and sought two weeks’ time.
The special court said it has been set up to hear cases against sitting legislators to give the proceedings priority, and added that no more adjournments will be permitted without a compelling reason.
Last month, the court had rejected applications filed by Bhujbal’s son Pankaj and his nephew Sameer to drop the proceedings against them filed by the ED. The court had then said that the application was rejected on a technical ground since there was no provision in the Criminal Procedure Code empowering the special court to quash proceedings in a case.
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