Telangana HC Quashes ED Petitions Against IAS Officers

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court today quashed the petitions filed by the Enforcement Directorate(ED) on senior IAS officers Adityanath Das and BP Acharya in cases filed by the ED. Giving them both the much needed reprieve it, also said that prior intimation to the Government was necessary before filing any such cases. It also found fault with the ED's action in filing the cases, and the Special ED Court taking cognizance of such a petition.

However the Court provided an option for the Enforcement Directorate to seek permission from the government and then file the case against them.

The petitions were filed separately by Adityanath Das and BP Acharya, who were the accused in the cases of land allotments to Hetero and Aurobindo Pharma and also water allocation to India Cements. They challenged the decision of the trial court to hear the case without prior permission for prosecution of the two by the ED.

The petitioners’ counsels said that that prior permission was mandatory as per Section 197 CrPC and prosecution without government’s permission would have rendered the trial invalid, they said. They also contended that the ED had blindly filed cases under Money laundering law and but was unable to show any evidence that they had received any kind of monetary benefits they contended. They also said that they were only in the capacity to implement decisions made by the Council of Ministers, whereas the ED's Council said that since it was a case related to money laundering, there was no need to seek permissions from the government.

After hearing both sides, Justice B Sivasankara Rao dismissed the cases registered by the ED against Adityanath Das and BP Acharya on Monday citing that the ED could not file cases against them until prior permission was obtained. Moreover, it was against the regulations for the Special ED court to take cognizance of such an offence, he said.

Contending that the order might impact other ED cases across the country, the investigation agency counsel urged the court to stay the implementation of the ruling for eight weeks so that it could move the Supreme Court on the issue.

Considering the plea, the High Court gave four weeks time to the ED to approach the apex court.

Also Read: YSRCP will Focus On AP Interests: Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy