JOIN USA Bench of Justices S Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar took a serious view of the allegations made by Prof S K Dubey, one of the petitioners, against ED officer Prabha Kant in his complaint to the Police Commissioner.
“We won’t keep quiet. We cannot accept that the petitioner before us is being threatened,” the court said directing the police to file a response on next Friday.
Dubey had shot off the letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on March 22 complaining against ED director Arun Mathur.
Senior counsel Rajeev Dhawan submitted before the court that Prabha Kant called Dubey and later met him on April 2 to threaten him of dire consequences and asked him to withdraw the allegations against the official.
The court also asked the Centre to come out with its response on two affidavits filed by Uttar Pradesh IPS officer Jasbir Singh, one of the petitioners along with noted jurist Ram Jethmalani and former police officer Julio F Riberio in the black money case, alleging Mathur and two officials Kant and S K Sahni having enjoyed hospitality of private firms.
During the hearing, the court asked various parties not to politicise the matter relating to stashing of black money in overseas’ banks by some Indians.
The observation was made after Jethmalani referred to the CD and transcript of the interrogations of Pune stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan, recorded by Ashok Deshbratar, a Mumbai police officer, who had since been suspended.
Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam, who was asked by the court about the charges, submitted that he had been instructed to deny the charges.