New Delhi, July 3 In a shot in the arm for the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Delhi High Court has junked a petition, along with a penalty of Rs 1.25 lakh, that accused the probe agency of bias in favour of a real estate company.
The company is accused of Rs 1,317-crore wrongdoings linked to bank loans and land parcels in Gurugram, Haryana.
Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, in a judgment delivered on Wednesday, came down heavily on petitioner Gulshan Babbar for concealing facts about his multiple petitions alleging lapses by probe agencies and the real estate company IREO Residences.
Accepting the ED’s explanation on action taken so far against the company and its officials, Justice Arora said, “All the writ petitions filed by the petitioner are dismissed on the grounds of lack of locus standi and non-maintainability.”
The ED said the total proceeds of crime identified till date in the instant Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) case were Rs 1,376 crore, which had been secured through attachment.
In response to the petitioner’s allegation that ED had failed to act against the company for alleged diversion of bank loan money, the investigative agency said, “The loan transaction of Rs 600 crore and its alleged illegal diversion, though to its knowledge, has not been made a part of the instant PMLA case as the lender banks have not filed any criminal complaint.”
The court accepted ED’s response and said, “The submission of the petitioner that the total proceeds of crime are Rs 4,246.22 crore and a significant portion remains unattached is not substantiated.”
Justice Arora said, “The conduct of the petitioner in failing to disclose the filing and pendency of the earlier writ petitions, the deliberate misrepresentation of the contents of the orders passed by this court and the false assertion with respect to being a financial investor in the IREO Projects show that the petitioner has approached this court with unclean hands.”
The High Court also slapped a cost of Rs 25,000 for each petition on the petitioner for knowingly concealing the pendency of other petitions, making a false declaration of non-filing, and misrepresenting the contents of the previous orders passed by this court.
“The said total cost of Rs 1,25,000 shall be deposited with the Delhi High Court Legal Services Committee (DHCLSC) within a period of two weeks,” said the court.
The petition filed by Babbar sought directions to statutory authorities, including the ED, to investigate the alleged siphoning of funds by a real estate company, its group companies, and its directors, Lalit Goyal and Sapna Goyal.
It was contended that while the ED identified Rs 4,246 crore as proceeds of crime, it only attached properties worth Rs 1,317 crore, deliberately excluding high-value assets such as 149 acres of prime land in Delhi, Gurugram properties, and overseas investments.
The petitioner alleged investigative bias and collusion, seeking a direction to the ED to register a case under PMLA and pass Provisional Attachment Order (PAO) under Section 5(1) of the Act, prohibiting the private respondents and other accused from alienating proceeds of crime.
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