The trial in a case of money laundering in 2G spectrum allocation scam began here on Monday, with the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) joint director Himanshu Kumar Lal partly deposing before a special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as a prosecution witness.
Special CBI Judge (2G cases) O P Saini, however, adjourned the hearing and ordered that the matter be posted for further prosecution evidence on November 19, as requested by the parties to the case. Lal’s deposition remained incomplete.
“Further examination of chief (deposition of Lal) deferred on the prayer of both parties,” the Court said.
Deposing before the court, Lal, who is the complainant, told the court that he supervised the money laundering case against former telecom minister A Raja and others during the primary investigation by ED’s deputydirector Rajeshwar Singh and assistant directors Kamal Singh and Satyendra Singh.
“My role was to see that investigation is being carried out as per law,” he added. Lal told the court that he supervised the investigation since he took over the charge of the ED’s investigation unit at its headquarters here on January 15, 2013.
On conclusion of the investigation, he said he drafted the complaint of the case by taking inputs from the three investigation officers and applied his own mind, too.
He said he finalised the complaint for submission in the court only after taking approval from ED’s special director Balesh Kumar.
“I went through the FIR, charge sheet and supplementary charge sheet filed by the CBI before this court, statements taken by investigation officers and documents collected from different agencies,” he said
While testifying, the joint director of the ED also identified the original complaint filed by him, including the list of witnesses and documents annexed, as well as his signature on it before the court, when shown to him.
Lal, who also handled coal block allocation case, is currently handling the Saradha chit-fund scam case. Accused Raja and P Amirtham were present in the court along with other accused in the case.
However, accused Asif Balwa, Rajiv B Agrawal, Karim Morani, Sharad Kumar, Shahid Usman Balwa, Vinod Goenka, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo M Karunanidhi's wife Dayalu Ammal and daughter Kanimozhi abstained. They were represented by their counsels.
The court exempted them from personal appearance on Monday on receiving applications on the condition that their counsel will remain present in court and participate in the proceedings, without pleading any prejudice.