ED officer Niranjan alleges Majithia hand in his transfer

Tuesday, 25/08/2015

http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

EMBARRASSMENT FOR GOVERNMENT High court continues stay on his transfer to Kolkata, special public prosecutor also cannot be moved to Bengaluru - The only reason I was transferred was that I summoned Majithia. NIRANJAN SINGH, ED officer, to high court bench.

In an embarrassment to the Akali-BJP alliance, enforcement directorate (ED) officer Niranjan Singh alleged in the Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday that Punjab revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia was behind his transfer order that would have derailed the money-laundering investigation in the Jagdish Bhola drug racket.

Majithia is brother of Union minister for food processing industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal. ED, a central government agency, had defended the transfer order, stating the reasons to be administrative. Last December 26, Niranjan had summoned Majithia for questioning, and this January 16, he was shifted from Jalandhar to Kolkata before the high court stayed that on January 20.

After hearing the ED officer on Monday, the high court continued the stay on his transfer, and since he said he also required the help of special public prosecutor Suresh Batra, his transfer, too, was stayed. Batra was moved to Bengaluru earlier this month. “The only reason I was transferred was that I summoned Majithia,” submitted Niranjan Singh.

During the hearing on the transfer of Batra, senior advocate Anupam Gupta submitted on behalf of Niranjan Singh that there was a pattern in the transfer of both officers “to weaken the investigation”.

Countering the ED averments, Gupta said the officer had given him the go-ahead to say so. Earlier, he argued that in this “no small case by any yardstick”, substantial part of the investigation was pending. “The PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) is a complicated law with international implications. Drug lords involved in the case are sitting abroad. This case needs strong shoulders… if transfers are allowed, the entire effort will come to a naught,” Gupta argued.

Assistant solicitor general Chetan Mittal, who appeared on behalf of the ED, defended the transfer of Batra as necessary to fill an urgent vacancy in Bengaluru. Officers associated with the investigation could not be allowed to continue at the time of prosecution, Mittal submitted, producing the officer’s transfer record. After about an hour of argument, the high court special bench of justice Surya Kant and justice PB Bajanthri observed that Batra would continue to be of service in the money-laundering investigation into the Punjab synthetic drug racket until further orders.