The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan’s plea challenging his arrest in a fresh money laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and urged the Allahabad high court to hear the matter on November 16.
“The high court has been granting you liberty at every stage. The latest case pertains to alleged misuse of government funds in the construction of the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University that was established in Rampur by Khan. The top court bench directed the transfer of Khan’s bail petition to the Allahabad high court within two days.
Khan was arrested on October 31 in the money laundering case, shortly after he and his son Abdullah Azam Khan were released from Rampur prison in Uttar Pradesh in an alleged dual PAN card case. The 78-year-old SP veteran was produced before the special Ghaziabad court and subsequently sent to judicial custody for 14 days. It also directed the registrar general of the high court to immediately place the matter before the chief justice, to constitute a division bench for the hearing on November 16.
We do not want to bypass the high court,” a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi said. “The division bench is requested to pass order on the prayer for interim relief (bail),” it said.
It will take years for me to be released in all these matters. They knew I would be released by the high court, so they filed a fresh ECIR. Appearing for Khan, senior advocate Kapil Sibal alleged that ED has opened 28 new Enforcement Case Information Reports (ECIR) based on predicate offences dating back to 2006. Sibal said the Allahabad high court granted Khan bail on October 29 in the dual PAN card case, but ED officials were already waiting outside the jail before he could walk out. And 28 fresh cases have been lodged by ED.
He argued that the whole purpose of arresting his client now is to keep him in custody ahead of the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh early next year. “Your argument may have substance but if we say something in your favour it will prejudice the case. We will request the high court to decide on the very first day of reopening after the Diwali vacation. “They have shown goats and cows as proceeds of crime, does it not shock judicial conscience? This is pure persecution as they want me to die in jail.
If there is a vacation bench, we will ask the chief justice to consider,” the bench said. This is to make sure in the next elections I am not there,” he said.
