Caravan News
NEW DELHI – The paragraphs from an unrelated money-laundering case have been found in a recent Delhi High Court order rejecting bail to former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram in the Enforcement Directorate case regarding INX Media.
Reacting to the development, senior Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan expressed his astonishment calling it “cut and paste”.
Astonishing! Even HC judge does a cut & paste job from an unrelated judgement while dismissing Chidambaram’s bail. Not just ED which the SC slammed, but even HC judge resorts to this! https://t.co/mX2DyFTJPL
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) November 17, 2019
In three instances, High Court judge, Justice S.K. Kait, reproduced paragraphs from a Supreme Court order of November 10, 2017. The apex court order concerned the rejection of bail to Delhi lawyer Rohit Tandon in a money laundering case.
Entire paragraphs from the Supreme Court order in the Tandon bail case can be found in Justice Kait’s November 15, 2019, order in the Chidambaram bail ruling.
“It is alleged that during the period from 15.11.2016 to 19.11.2016, huge cash to the tune of ₹31.75 crore was deposited in eight bank accounts in Kotak Mahindra Bank in the accounts of the ‘Group of Companies’. It gives details of Demand Drafts issued during 15.11.2016 to 19.11.2016 from eight bank accounts in the name of Sunil Kumar, Dinesh Kumar, Abhilasha Dubey, Madan Kumar, Madan Saini, Satya Narain Dagdi and Seema Bai on various dates. Most of the Demand Drafts issued have since been recovered,” the questioned paragraph was quoted by The Hindu.
According to the daily, The seven names mentioned in the paragraphs are allegedly fictitious.
Mr. Chidambaram is expected to move the Supreme Court shortly in appeal against the Delhi High Court order.
Tandon, a Delhi based lawyer, is accused of supplying huge sums of money through his associates into various bank accounts in Delhi. The conspiracy is alleged to have originated post-demonetisation. Tandon was arrested in 2016.
The INX Media case concerns the grant of FIPB approval in 2007-08 during Mr. Chidambaram’s tenure as finance minister.
