Telangana High Court issues notice to ED on Rohit Reddy petition

Justice K Lakshman of the Telangana High Court directed ED to submit its counter in the writ plea filed by BRS MLA from Tandur, Pilot Rohith Reddy.

Hyderabad: Justice K Lakshman of the Telangana High Court on Wednesday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to submit its counter in the writ plea filed by BRS MLA from Tandur, Pilot Rohith Reddy. He challenged the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) and investigation proceedings against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Senior counsel, S Niranjan Reddy representing Rohith Reddy pointed out that, the petitioner has filed a complaint against the persons who offered Rs.100 crore for defecting from BRS to BJP party. Neither the petitioner has received any amount nor has he invested such amount in any form to attract offence of money laundering, senior counsel said. Therefore, without there being any money exchange involved there is no crime proceedings and without there being crime proceedings there is no jurisdiction for the Enforcement Directorate to register a case against the petitioner under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, argued Niranjan Reddy.

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The petitioner also raised contention about the registration of case and issuance of summons on the same day. He raised objection on the manner in which investigation was conducted. Facing embarrassment across the country in the Moinabad case filed by the petitioner the central government was trying to intimidate him for filing complaint. It is pointed out that, constitutional courts including the Apex court have appropriately termed central investigating agencies as ‘caged parrot’. While the counsel stressed upon the need to stay the proceedings, Justice Lakshman did not concede to stay proceedings at this stage. The judge posted the case to January 5 for the response of the ED.