HYDERABAD: In a temporary relief to senior IAS officer Adityanath Das, an accused in a case registered by the Enforcement Directorate in Jagan’s illegal assets case, the High Court on Thursday directed the special ED court not to go ahead with the process of framing charges against him for four weeks, and also granted exemption to him from appearing before the trial court.
Justice Shameem Akther passed this interim order on a petition filed by Das seeking quashing of the case registered against him by the ED based on the charge sheet filed by the CBI in Jagan’s assets case.
Senior counsel T Niranjan Reddy, appearing for the petitioner, pointed out that the special court took the ED complaint into consideration for hearing without verifying the evidence in the case. No evidence was shown with regard to the ED’s allegation that the officer had committed crime under Section 3 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Besides, there was no truth in the allegations that the officer indulged in irregularities in respect of water allocation to India Cements company. In fact, there was no evidence to prove the CBI’s charges that the petitioner indulged in conspiracy and money laundering and that he benefited illegally from the deal, he argued.The judge granted interim relief to the petitioner by granting exemption from appearance. While adjourning the case by two weeks, the judge issued notices to the ED for filing a counter affidavit.
