The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea by former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel seeking protection from arrest and alleging misuse of investigative powers in the money laundering
case.
His plea challenged the provisions of the PMLA and CrPC, particularly those relating to “further investigation”. His plea comes two weeks after his son Chaitanya Baghel was arrested in the money laundering case.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi asked Baghel to approach the High Court.
While hearing Chaitanya Baghel’s petition seeking interim bail and challenging provisions of PMLA, the top court asked him to approach the High Court in connection with the money laundering case.
“If you want to simpliciter file writ petition challenging provisions…but you are questioning the arrest…you can’t ask for whole some relief in one petition. Why should we hear the facts at all? For what purpose are HCs there? This abnormality is arising only in cases of affluent persons. Where will poor persons go?” Justice Kant asked.
The plea filed by them challenged the powers of the CBI and the ED to arrest and investigate accused individuals and their jurisdictions in these cases.
The father-son duo had questioned the legitimacy of the probe being carried out by the ED and CBI.
Chaitanya was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on July 18 after they searched his home, which he shares with his father in Bhilai town, Chhattisgarh. He is now in jail under judicial custody until August 4 in connection with a money laundering case related to an alleged liquor scam.
The ED has alleged that Chaitanya was involved in handling over Rs 1,000 crore of illegal money made from the suspected liquor scam in the state. Out of this, the ED claims he used Rs 16.7 crore for developing his real estate project. Chaitanya has strongly denied these charges and claimed innocence.
Bhupesh Baghel alleged that his son’s arrest was a part of the political vendetta by the BJP government.
