The Kerala High Court on Tuesday adjourned to May 10 hearing on a public interest litigation filed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) State unit seeking a directive to the Centre government and Directorate of Enforcement (ED) to act on its representations for fast-tracking the investigation by ED in the Kodakara black money case in which State BJP leaders are allegedly involved.
In its petition, the party said that the ED was delaying the probe into the money laundering activities that was unearthed during the investigation by the State Police in connection with the case. Though AAP president Vinod Mathew Wilson had submitted representations to the Central government and the ED to take further action in the case and also under the UAPA, nothing happened in the case. It has been three years since the money transactions had surfaced.
When the petition came up before the Bench comprising Justice Gopinath P. and Justice Syam Kumar V.M. orally observed that the investigating agencies involved in the probe seemed to be doing their job. The State Police had filed a chargesheet, the Income Tax department was investigating the source of the funds and the ED had initiated action under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering) Act. What more should be done, the court orally queried. The court told the counsel for the petitioner not to make use of the court as a venue for political slugfest. The court would not permit it, the court added.
Counsel for the ED submitted that the agency’s investigation was almost complete.
