Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday gave the State government its last chance to file a progress report on allegations made against senior Congress leader Kripashankar Singh in a disproportionate assets case. Referring to an order passed in October directing the State government to file a report, the bench said, “You have only been seeking time and we give you a last chance now; you have two more weeks to file a report.”
A division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi was hearing a criminal writ petition filed by Tulsidas Nair alleging that the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) was influenced by Mr. Singh and did not conduct a probe in the 2012 case.
Mr. Nair has contended that Mr. Singh laundered black money using multiple Aadhaar and PAN cards, and amassed considerable wealth through his connections to former ministers.
In 2012, the Enforcement Directorate had initiated an inquiry into the allegation that Mr. Singh’s net worth was Rs. 320 crore and registered an FIR against him. Following an HC order, a special investigation team (SIT) was formed to probe the case.
The SIT booked Mr. Singh and his family members under several IPC sections including 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent) and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender). In June 2016, the ACB sought sanction to prosecute the former MLA.
