Days after initiating a case against Delhi chief minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal under section 174 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) (not obeying a legal order to attend at a certain place in person or by agent) for dishonouring summonses issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the agency has initiated a similar case against Jharkhand ex-CM Hemant Soren for not complying with 10 summonses.
The ED has filed a special application before a court in Ranchi seeking direction in this matter. News18 has accessed the application exclusively.
Even though the directorate arrested Soren last month in Ranchi in connection with a land scam, the agency seems to be trying to send a message to senior politicians and their relatives, who take the “liberty" to call the summons “illegal" or “politically motivated" and choose to not comply.
The cases filed by the ED are under the sections of IPC for which the directorate has sought directions from the court. The action has been taken by the agency to ensure that the penal case against the “offenders" stays alive, despite being arrested or otherwise. The decision by the ED is also indicative of more such legal actions against those who will choose ‘non-compliance’ citing frivolous reasons. Senior officers of the ED said that skipping summons on ‘frivolous’ grounds do not help the accused, but it causes delay in investigation .
“We have noticed that skipping summons has become a trend, especially among politicians. And they issue public statements by calling the summons illegal, or invalid or motivated. If they want to challenge the legal sanctity or validity of a summons, they can move court and get a direction from the court itself. But nobody has the right to be non-compliant to a summons issued by a quasi-judicial body (ED)," said the senior ED officer.
NON-COMPLIANCE: A POLITICAL TREND?
In a special application filed before the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Ranchi, the ED has stated that during the investigation, Soren was summoned seven times to appear before the ED officers for his statement in regard to all properties acquired or possessed by him. However, he chose to skip them, calling them “motivated".
“Seven summonses were issued to him [between August and December last year] which were disobeyed by him by citing frivolous reasons and evading the investigation by colouring the summonses to be politically motivated," the ED stated in the application.
Soren cited pending petition, sub-judice case among the reasons to skip.
Significantly, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra was summoned by the ED in connection with alleged Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violation and was asked to appear before the investigators on February 19. Moitra has also chosen to skip the summons stating that she “did not violate" any FEMA rules.
“Summoned persons cannot respond saying that it is invalid or that they did not violate any rule or did not commit a crime. We are here to investigate that. If they have a grievance against a summons, they can move court and get it quashed or get a direction. Legally, the summoned persons can never take the liberty to decide whether or not they have committed a crime," said a senior officer.
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