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ED to attach assets of firms in 2G case
Thursday, 28 April 2011, 05:05 IST
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it had initiated proceedings to attach the properties of five companies allegedly involved in 2G scam.
An apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly was told that the ED has initiated the proceedings that would take two months time to complete. The court was told this in two status reports submitted by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in sealed covers.
Senior counsel K.K. Venugopal appearing for the ED and the CBI told the court that the enforcement agency has initiated the proceedings under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
He told the court that attachment proceedings would involve the issuance of show cause notice and the identification of properties some of them may even be 'benami' properties. He told the court that each of the companies being proceeded against has gained nearly by 
2,000 crore in the allocation of 2G spectrum.
The court was told that there will be attachment and that will be followed up by the adjudication for the confirmation of the attachment order.
This prompted the court to observe that with every successive status report the amount involved in the scam was getting bigger. The court said it found this astonishing as it was not familiar with figures of this magnitude.
'Figures are getting multiplied,' Justice Singhvi observed. To this Justice Ganguly added: 'Today, profits are getting globalised.'
The apex court extended to the ED proceedings under the FEMA and PMLA its earlier order wherein it had restrained all the courts in the country from entertaining any petition challenging any point arising from the proceedings of the special CBI court of Additional Session Judge O.P. Saini.
'All the proceedings (before the ED) under FEMA and PMLA would go uninterrupted without any impediments by any court in the country in it its (ED's) proceedings', the court said while maintaining that 'they (companies proceeded against) would be entitled to avail all the remedies available under law, but first adjudication proceedings should be completed unhampered'.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in its status report, gave details of the investigations carried out by it since last hearing of the matter in the apex court.
The status report said that by its April 23, 2011 notification, the central government has appointed senior counsel U.U. Lalit as special public prosecutor to supervise the prosecution case in 2G scam before the court of Judge Saini.
Venugopal told the court that the investigating agency would require some more time in completing the probe into the leads it was following.
After recoding the submission made by the ED and the CBI, the court directed the Income Tax Department to make available to the CBI the transcripts of all conversations recorded by it in the tapping telephones of lobbyist Niira Radia and her associates.
The court told senior counsel Prashant Bhushan that it would hold a hearing on his application seeking directions to the investigating agency to take into its net the corporate bigwigs who were the actual beneficiaries of the wrongdoings in the 2G scam.
Source: IANS
2,000 crore in the allocation of 2G spectrum.
The court was told that there will be attachment and that will be followed up by the adjudication for the confirmation of the attachment order.
This prompted the court to observe that with every successive status report the amount involved in the scam was getting bigger. The court said it found this astonishing as it was not familiar with figures of this magnitude.
'Figures are getting multiplied,' Justice Singhvi observed. To this Justice Ganguly added: 'Today, profits are getting globalised.'
The apex court extended to the ED proceedings under the FEMA and PMLA its earlier order wherein it had restrained all the courts in the country from entertaining any petition challenging any point arising from the proceedings of the special CBI court of Additional Session Judge O.P. Saini.
'All the proceedings (before the ED) under FEMA and PMLA would go uninterrupted without any impediments by any court in the country in it its (ED's) proceedings', the court said while maintaining that 'they (companies proceeded against) would be entitled to avail all the remedies available under law, but first adjudication proceedings should be completed unhampered'.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in its status report, gave details of the investigations carried out by it since last hearing of the matter in the apex court.
The status report said that by its April 23, 2011 notification, the central government has appointed senior counsel U.U. Lalit as special public prosecutor to supervise the prosecution case in 2G scam before the court of Judge Saini.
Venugopal told the court that the investigating agency would require some more time in completing the probe into the leads it was following.
After recoding the submission made by the ED and the CBI, the court directed the Income Tax Department to make available to the CBI the transcripts of all conversations recorded by it in the tapping telephones of lobbyist Niira Radia and her associates.
The court told senior counsel Prashant Bhushan that it would hold a hearing on his application seeking directions to the investigating agency to take into its net the corporate bigwigs who were the actual beneficiaries of the wrongdoings in the 2G scam.
Source: IANS