Who is judge M G Deshpande, who panned the ED in the Sanjay Raut case?

In his 122-page order on Wednesday, the judge said that the ED’s speed in arresting accused is “extraordinary” but it is slower than a snail when conducting trials.

“I am constrained to note that not a single trial right from the establishment of this Designated Court, the ED has concluded by leading evidence and the court could not give a single judgment right from the last decade,” the judge said. He said that a detailed report was submitted by him to the principal judge of the Mumbai City Civil and Sessions Court, “regarding such modus operandi availed by the ED in conducting trials”. The court said that when an explanation is sought from the ED on the delay in trials, the officials say that further investigation is going on.

The court had raised the issue of the slow pace of trials by the ED previously as well.

In February, while granting bail to Rana Kapoor in the Avantha Realty case – Kapoor remains in custody in other cases – judge Deshpande had said that the ED has not shown any “active approach” to begin trials of cases pending for long. “It is a fact that, ever since this special Court for PMLA cases has been established, not a single PMLA case has been disposed of by judgment. ED had not shown any active approach to begin the trials of the cases which have been pending since long,” judge Deshpande said in his order in February.

Records perused by The Indian Express had shown that between 2008 and 2012, the ED had not filed more than one or two cases per year, which increased in later years. None of these cases, which have been pending for over a decade before this court, have seen the trial commence so far.

After ruling on the bail order, the court on Wednesday said that the case against Raut would be transferred to another court which is designated to conduct trials against MPs and MLAs. The other cases pending before judge Deshpande’s court include the Yes Bank case against Rana Kapoor, the case against Pune stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan pending since 2011, the case against former ICICI MD Chanda Kochhar, one against family members of gangster Iqbal Memon alias Iqbal Mirchi and others.

The judge was also one of the first in the country to grant relief based on the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Vijay Madanlal Choudhary vs Union of India passed in July, where it was observed that if there is no scheduled offence, proceedings under PMLA cannot continue.

Two men booked in the Omkar Realtors case were directed to be released on an interim order which was made absolute later. The ED had opposed their release despite the reference to the Supreme Court order by the accused. “This court strongly feels that it cannot join hands with vengeful complainant like ED to humiliate accused persons by continuing their judicial custody that too, in utter disregard to the recent law of the land,” judge Deshpande had said in his order in August.

The judge has also in the past year pulled up accused, including DHFL promoter Dheeraj Wadhawan, after authorities claimed that he was staying at a private hospital for 15 months to avoid jail. In September, the judge had also directed Wadhawan to pay pending dues of Rs 24.10 lakh to the Navi Mumbai police as charges of police protection while he was admitted to a private hospital.