Two children of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Tuesday moved Delhi High Court seeking quashing of a provisional order of Enforcement Directorate (ED) to attach some of their assets under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act .
The plea, filed by Virbhadra’s daughter Aprajita Kumari and son Vikramaditya Singh, also sought stay on the March 23 provisional attachment order (PAO) of ED saying it has “exceeded its jurisdiction”.
The petition came up before a Bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath which fixed it for hearing tomorrow.
ED has provisionally attached assets worth Rs 15,85,639 belonging to Aprajita and Rs 62,86,747 of Vikramaditya, their joint petition said and added that this order was passed without them being named in the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) of October 27, 2015 lodged against Virbhadra and others under PMLA.
“There is no chargesheet in the present case against anyone,” the plea has said, adding that the basis of passing PAO under PMLA are the Income Tax department’s inquiries and investigation “which itself are under challenge and are not conclusive of any allegation” made against them.
“Any finding on the basis of inconclusive proceedings is per se bad and unsustainable in law. Action taken by respondents (ED and Centre) are motivated due to extraneous reasons and are presumptive, malafide and arbitrary,” their petition said.
They have also challenged the recently amended second proviso of section 5(1) of the PMLA which provides that any property of any person may be attached if ED officer concerned has reasons to believe, on the basis of material in his possession, that if such property allegedly involved in money-laundering is not attached immediately, it is likely to frustrate any proceeding under the Act. The petition has sought that this proviso of the PMLA be declared unconstitutional, claiming it was contradictory to the scheme of the Act and violated the Constitution. - PTI
