Anil Deshmukh’s wife moves HC against attachment of assets by ED

The court on Monday directed the adjudicating authority, which confirms the provisional attachments under PMLA, to continue hearing on whether the properties belonging to Deshmukh and his family members are from proceedings of alleged money laundering, but not to pass the final verdict till further orders of the HC.

A division bench of Justice Gautam S Patel and Justice Madhav J Jamdar was hearing pleas by Aarti Anil Deshmukh and Premier Port Links Private Limited challenging the proceedings before the adjudicating authority under the PMLA. The petitioners claimed that the authority was supposed to comprise three members, including the chairperson, but the present authority has a single member, and therefore is an incompetent body.

Aarti Anil Deshmukh sought direction to the ED to constitute an adjudicating authority strictly as per the PMLA and sought the current authority, having a single member, be restrained from conducting further proceedings. The plea also sought to strike down a second proviso of Section 5 of the PMLA, arguing that the same provides “unguided and arbitrary powers to the authority to provisionally attach any property without any report having forwarded to magistrate or a complaint being filed pertaining to the scheduled offence for the purpose of getting finality to such provisional attachment”.

Senior advocate Vikram Chaudhri and advocate Inderpal Singh for Deshmukh argued that the authority would pass an order pertaining to the provisional attachment on December 9 and therefore interim relief be given. The lawyers sought from the court to restrain the authority from passing any final order pending the plea before HC.

The court sought to know from the respondent agency if the law requires a three-member tribunal, how can it have a single member to confirm the attachment. It stated that the adjudicating authority may complete the hearing but may not pass final orders till it is seized with the plea.

“There are serious questions about the appropriateness of the authority in question,” the bench noted and said that it proposed to hear the matter at “some length” and dispose of the petitions at the admission stage itself on January 10, 2022. It said that its restraining order will continue till January 14.

The ED on July 16 this year had provisionally attached immovable assets worth Rs 4.2 crore belonging to Deshmukh and his family members under the PMLA in corruption cases.

According to the ED, Deshmukh’s family “laundered the tainted sum of Rs 4.18 crore and projected it as untainted by showing the same amount as received by the trust, namely Shri Sai Shikshan Sanstha”.

The ED probe into Deshmukh’s financial transactions is in line with a CBI probe into former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh’s allegations of corruption against the NCP leader. The CBI initiated a preliminary probe based on the April 5 HC order and registered an FIR on April 21.