Nagpur lawyer remanded to ED custody in PMLA case; tells court case due to political vendetta

A Mumbai Sessions Court on Friday remanded Nagpur lawyer Satish Uke and his brother Pradeep Uke to 6-day custody with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case. .Special Judge under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Girish B Gurao reasoned that the accused have been arrested by the Central agency based on statements recorded by witnesses. "The predicate offences are made out as per the schedule under the PMLA Act. Investigation is at preliminary stage, detailed investigation is necessary, hence considering submission of both parties, the accused are remanded to ED custody till April 6, 2022," the order stated. .Uke had filed multiple petitions against BJP leaders including the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis in which he had alleged that Fadnavis had not disclosed pending criminal cases against himself. Uke had also approached the Nagpur Bench of the High Court seeking police probe into the death of Judge BH Loya, who had been hearing the the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case. Uke was arrested by ED on March 31, 2022 at 5.10 pm after the investigating agency conducted a raid for search and seizure at Uke's home and officeSubsequently, an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) was registered against the brothers.The ECIR was based on two FIRs - one of 2018 and another of 2022 - in which the allegations were that they had usurped land by creating fake documents. .Special Public Prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar for the agency submitted: That the offences in the FIR pointed out that the accused were indulging in activities connected with proceeds of crime derived out of commission of scheduled offence which is still continuing;With further investigation, it was discovered that the accused made forged and bogus documents leading to removal of properties leading to a belief that there is sufficient material to connect the accused with alleged crime.It was also submitted that since the accused had not co-operated with the investigation, their personal interrogation was necessary. Accordingly custody was sought of 14 days. .Advocate Ravi Jadhav for Pradeep Uke and Satish Uke in person made the following submissions: That there is violation of provisions of the Constitution. ED officers detained the accused since morning, and did not allow any of the family members to leave their house; The present case was filed out of political vendetta;Both accused co-operated with the investigation and will continue to do so; additionally they also have all documents in their possession; The FIRs are false and additionally, the High Court in a case pertaining to one of the FIRs had even asked the local police not to file chargesheet in the matter, until an order of this court; That one of the complainants had filed various complaints against Uke. He added that he had got anticipatory bail from a Sessions Court in Nagpur;That he had obtained legitimate rights over the property, and had not committed any offence under PMLA. The defence, therefore, prayed that the accused be remanded to judicial custody adding that the accused ought to be released on bail.