Railways scam: Delhi High Court refuses to quash ED summons to man accused of transacting with family of Lalu Prasad Yadav

The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to quash Enforcement Directorate (ED) proceedings against businessman Amit Katyal accused of transacting with the family members of former railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in connection with land for railway jobs scam [Amit Katyal v Directorate of Enforcement]. .Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma noted that the investigation in the case was ongoing and that Katyal had merely been summoned to appear and submit certain documents. The Court stressed that it cannot throttle the investigation at the stage of issuance of summons.“The investigation in the present ECIR is still continuing and the petitioner has merely been summoned to appear and submit certain documents. Even as per the own case of petitioner, he has joined investigation in the present ECIR upon being summoned by the Directorate of Enforcement on six occasions in past, between March till August 2023. Thus, no tenable grounds have been shown now as to why the impugned summons deserve to be quashed,” the Court held..Justice Sharma also said that there was contradiction in Katyal’s arguments. On one hand, he had stated that he was not in possession of the ECIR and that he was not aware of whether he had been named an accused. Yet he was seeking the quashing of the ECIR insofar as it is related to him, the Court pointed out. .The Court, therefore, rejected Katyal’s prayers to quash the ED's summons or to direct the agency not to take any coercive action against him..“Thus, in these circumstances, when the petitioner has only been summoned under Section 50 of PMLA, and the ECIR is not available on record, nor the petitioner has made out any ground at this stage for which this Court should pass any direction to call upon the respondent to place before this Court a copy of ECIR, which is also one of the prayers in this petition, this Court is of the opinion that the prayer for quashing of ECIR is premature and without any merit," the Court said. .Katyal approached the High Court on apprehensions that he may be arrested in the case, considering ED raids at locations tied to him..He told the Court that he had been summoned by the ED several times and that had appeared on six occasions already. Yet, despite cooperating with the investigation and despite not being an accused in the predicate offence, he was being repeatedly called and grilled by the ED, he said..The multi-crore land for jobs scam concerns allegations that land was exchanged as bribes for candidates to secure Group D jobs in the Indian Railways during 2004-2009, when Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Railways Minister. Yadav and his family members were accused of accepting land as bribes to appoint people to these posts.The allegation against Katyal concerns his time as the Director and major shareholder of M/s AK lnfosystem Pvt Ltd. At the time, the company is said to have received land parcels from the relative of a candidate who was selected as a Group D substitute in the Indian Railways. In 2014, this company (AK lnfosystem) was handed over to the family members of Lalu Yadav without the exchange of any money. It was also the ED’s case that the proceeds of the crime were utilised to purchase a property in New Friends Colony, New Delhi in the name of M/s AB Exports Private Limited, and that Katyal, who was a close aide of Lalu Yadav, had applied for the electricity connection for the said property to allegedly facilitate its enjoyment by Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family..Senior Advocate Mukul Rohtagi along with advocates Bina Gupta, Gurpreet Singh, Bakul Jain, Sheena, Akasha Saini, Shiv Kumar Gupta and Naman Agarwal appeared for Amit Katyal. ED was represented by its Special Counsel Zoheb Hossain as well as advocates Vivek Gurnani, Baibhav, Kartik Sabharwal and Ankur Tiwari. .[Read Judgment].Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.