The Enforcement Directorate has sought the permission of the court to question the accused who are lodged in jail in cases against illegal mining, Emaar township and assets of Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy as “witnesses” and not as “accused.”
The ED had last month moved the court to question the 11 accused in these cases in jail but they raised objections, saying it was not permitted under the law. The agency had stated that a prima facie case was made out against them under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), a legislation which can be enforced only by it. The court reserved its order for June 19.
ED counsel V. Gopalakrishna Gokhale argued that the agency was only inquiring into allegations of violations of PMLA by the accused at this stage. They might or might not be included as accused in the cases. Till then, however, the ED would examine them only as witnesses because they had exclusive knowledge of the transactions. They could not draw their own assumptions about what the agency was up to and stall the investigation.
Responding to the plea of the accused that they were not in possession of records or lacked professional assistance as they were in jail, Mr. Gokhale said the ED was prepared to send for the records and even issue notices seeking the presence of their chartered accountants if the accused wanted.
Warning
He, however, warned the accused to speak the truth or else face the consequences. A defence lawyer, E. Uma Maheshwar Rao, expressed apprehension that the accused could face prosecution if they erred in giving correct replies or issued false statements, because, after all, they could speak from memory about events that took place long ago.
They were liable to prosecution under PMLA even if they did not speak. He also feared that the CBI could misuse the responses for trial in its own cases.
