Chhagan Bhujbal, nephew custody extended

The special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai on Thursday extended judicial custody of senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal and his nephew Sameer till April 13 in connection with the money laundering case for which they were arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Both the politicians were produced before the court via video conferencing and former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal was wearing a cervical collar belt during the hearing and removed it only while addressing the court.

“Whatever my lawyer has stated about my medical condition is true and I request court to allow my application for medication and home food,” said Mr Bhujbal adding that his bail application moved by some unknown lawyer should not be considered as he had not asked anybody to move such an application.

Senior counsel Amit Desai told the court that some lawyer had moved a bail application seeking bail for Mr Bhujbal on the ground that he need to celebrate Holi. “We understand the seriousness of this case and would never seek bail for celebrating Holi. The Vakalatnama filed in the court for filing bail application is not signed by Mr Bhujbal and he was not aware about such application so it should not be considered and steps should be taken to ensure that such incident does not occur in future,” said advocate Desai.

Advocate Desai also argued Ms Preeti Sharma Menon had moved an application in this court claiming some witness of this case was intimidated and sought action in this regard. He also said the complainant should first show her locus-standi in this case and even if somebody has any such complaint then he should approach the investigating agency and that witness could be provided security under witness protection policy. “This (court) is not the forum (for this kind of complaint),” he said. He also added this is done to prejudice the mind of the court.

On the other hand, Ms Menon argued that she has locus-standi in this matter because on her public interest litigation the Bombay high court had directed to form SIT and that SIT is investigating this matter. She also said that she had written to the department concerned when she came to know that some witness was allegedly threatened but she did not get any reply and hence she did not have any other option but to approach the court.

After hearing some more arguments, special PMLA judge P.R. Bhavake posted these applications for passing order on April 4 and issue of bail application on April 7.