In the season of phonetaps, comes a startling admission by the Enforcement Directorate that while probing charges of money laundering, it intercepted phone conversations between members of the Singhania group, that runs Kanpur-based LML, and their lawyers.
The tap was done just days before a court order was due in the case. The recorded conversations, said ED?s counsel additional solicitor general Harin Rawal, raise questions regarding the Allahabad High Court order that stayed the ED probe.
In their order, on June 9 last year, a vacation bench of Justice Rakesh Sharma and Justice Shyam Shankar Tiwari had called the ED?s investigation ?wholly without jurisdiction and contrary to the mandate of FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act)?.
In the first of his two opinions, on June 21, 2010 ? which form the basis of the government?s Special Leave Petition filed in the Supreme Court last September challenging the HC stay ? Rawal said: ?To put it briefly, a couple of days prior to the interim order being rendered by the Honourable Division Bench, a conversation is recorded that would clearly be a reasonable basis to believe that the Honourable Division Bench has passed an interim order on considerations which are other than legal or judicial.?
Saying that the sound recordings and the transcripts should be handed over in a sealed cover to the Supreme Court, Rawal?s opinion states: ?If these facts and what has been recorded in the conversations and transcripts is true, it is a very serious matter and immediate action must be taken by the Directorate of Enforcement to challenge the interim order.?
Rawal?s second opinion, incidentally, doesn?t mention the telephone intercepts.
Senior lawyer Harish Salve, who is representing LML in the Supreme Court, declined to comment on the case. But LML?s petition in the Allahabad High Court accuses the ED of ?witch-hunting? and of being ?motivated solely by extraneous reasons?.
The company alleged that the ?never-ending? ED probe ? on for over three years ? is an attempt to ?fabricate? a case. And that the ?harassment meted out… in the garb of the investigation is seriously affecting the very survival of the company?. The ED will be represented by attorney general Goolam Vahanvati in the Supreme Court. The next date of hearing is scheduled for Monday.
When asked about the government?s stand on the telephone intercepts and Rawal?s opinion, Vahanvati said: ?I would not like to comment on the merits of the matter since it is sub judice but the authorities have taken this matter very, very seriously and I have been asked to attend to the case along with ASG Harin Rawal on a priority basis, which we are doing.?
