Jagran correspondent, New Delhi. Hearing in the National Herald case was held in Delhi High Court on Monday. The end result is that for the amount of Rs 50 lakh the accused got property worth Rs 2000 crore. The SG said that a private person had filed a private complaint in the competent court and the court took cognizance of it.
The decision to take cognizance was challenged in the High Court and the High Court rejected it. An appeal was made against this in the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court refused to hear it, but the order of taking cognizance was confirmed by the apex court.
The SG (Solicitor General) said that the cognizance taken by the magistrate involved an offense under section 420 of the IPC which is a notified offence. The SG said that the gist of the impugned order is that if someone files a one-page FIR, that can amount to an ED crime, but if a court takes cognizance under Section 200 of CrPC, then that cannot be the basis for an ED complaint.
SG said that the trial court has made a big mistake. This is not just this case, but it will affect many other cases also. The court says that if a court has taken cognizance of a private complaint, then the ED cannot do anything.
On this, the court asked the SG whether there is any such case pending, where ED has initiated a case on the basis of personal complaint and cognizance taken by the court? The court also asked whether this could be the first case?
SG argued that the method of registration of the crime has not been mentioned in the Prevention of Money Laundering. What is required is that there must be an allegation, there must be a criminal activity and that criminal activity must be related to the notified offence. There is no mention of FIR or criminal complaint.
SG said that according to me the criminal complaint is stronger. SG said that I am emphasizing that there will be a need to investigate this.
The court asked whether cognizance of this was taken after examining the complainant. The AG answered yes to the court's question. The AG said the gist of the trial court's judgment is that an ED case can be made out only from an FIR, even if the court takes cognizance, examines witnesses and says that a prima facie case is made out, even if the offense is a notified offense and the ED cannot initiate investigation.
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After hearing the arguments of the SG, the court issued notice to all the parties and adjourned the hearing till March 12.