ED disowns its affidavit in Supreme Court, claims filed without vetting

New Delhi: In an unusual turn of events, a law officer on Friday told the Supreme Court that there was something "fishy" about a counter-affidavit filed by the Enforcement Directorate.

"In this particular case, there is something hanky panky as far as my department is concerned. Without consultation a half-baked affidavit in counter has been filed even before we filed an appearance for it," Additional Solicitor General S V Raju submitted before a bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan.

The court was hearing a money laundering case involving accused Arun Pati Tripathi in the Chhattisgarh liquor scam.

Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora, for the petitioner Tripathi, argued that this appeared to be a strategy to keep the accused in jail.

Opposing this, the ASG said, "There is something fishy in the filing of the affidavit that is what I found yesterday. The affidavit was filed without being vetted by the investigatory agency, without even referring the facts to the investigating agency."

A surprised bench criticised the ED for its stand. "The counter must have been filed by your Advocate on record (AoR). You are raising doubts on your AOR," the bench asked Raju.

The court said it is a serious matter.

The ASG said that the AoR cannot be blamed as the affidavit came from the ED.

He said, he has told the ED Director to institute a departmental enquiry.

The law officer asked the court to adjourn the matter to Tuesday.

"I want to check the affidavit. I personally told the Director to institute a departmental inquiry and ask the officer concerned to remain present in court today. I am sensing something fishy let me make an inquiry from my side. This type of thing should not happen in the department. The AoR is not to be blamed it has come from ED without being vetted by the proper channels," the ASG told it.

The court fixed the matter for final hearing on February 5.