INTRODUCTION
The Supreme Court on said it will examine the serious allegations of Enforcement Directorate and Chhattisgarh govt that Nagarik Apurti Nigam (NAN or PDS) scam accused ex-bureaucrats Anil K Tuteja and Alok Shukla allegedly influenced a HC judge for getting anticipatory bail.
BACKGROUND
The Supreme Court directed former IAS officer Anil Tuteja to respond to allegations of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) that he manipulated the Chhattisgarh judiciary to obtain anticipatory bail.
The ED has contended that Tuteja and his co-accused Alok Shukla misused the anticipatory bail
Justice Oka asked Additional Solicitor General SV Raju whether there was any material evidence to show that Tuteja had misused his liberty under the anticipatory bail. Raju responded that Tuteja obtained the anticipatory bail by playing fraud on the court. He further said that the accused manipulated the judiciary to get anticipatory bail.
KEY ASPECTS
- A bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice AG Masih was hearing ED’s plea challenging the anticipatory bail granted to Tuteja, accused in the 2015 Nagrik Apurti Nigam (NAN) scam, which involved corruption in the Public Distribution System (PDS) in Chhattisgarh.
- Justice Oka asked Additional Solicitor General SV Raju whether there was any material evidence to show that Tuteja had misused his liberty under the anticipatory bail. Raju responded that Tuteja obtained the anticipatory bail by playing fraud on the court. He further said that the accused manipulated the judiciary to get anticipatory bail.
- Raju said the evidence was filed in a sealed cover by the ED.
- Raju maintained that evidence had already been submitted in a sealed cover. However, the bench could not locate the sealed cover in the papers. Raju offered to re-submit the sealed cover, stating it contained evidence demonstrating that the accused had used their influence to tamper with the judicial process.The Court directed the registry to verify the existence of the sealed cover, and if not found, allowed the ED to submit fresh sealed documents.
- Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani for the State of Chhattisgarh said that the affidavits contain details of chats, alleging that the accused subverted the judiciary and the former Advocate General of the state was involved in this. He submitted that the state had a significant role in exposing the alleged fraud.
- However, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi for Tuteja opposed this, stating that State of Chhattisgarh is not a party in ED’s plea against Tuteja’s anticipatory bail, and thus ED cannot rely on those affidavits in this case.
CONCLUSION
The agency said that the accused gets its profits from the corruption and also the accused had recieved illegal payments from the scheme of PDS.The court has scheduled the case to 8 November 2024. The court has also said that the Registry has to ensure that the sealed cover documents are available for the court before the court has decided the date.
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WRITTEN BY: Pratiksha swain
