HC quashes 21 year-old FERA case against man

NEW DELHI: Offering relief to a man facing charges under Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) for the last 21 years, the Delhi High Court has quashed the proceedings in the trial court and slammed the Enforcement Directorate for delay in producing evidence.

Justice Pradeep Nadrajog allowed a petition filed by Pradeep Goyal seeking quashing of proceedings against him.

Goyal stated that the Directorate had so far produced only three witnesses as pre-charge evidence before the Additional Chief Metopolitan Magistrate in the case.

"The ED has to take a blame for the reason as without any application of mind, all and sundry complaints are filed," Justice Nandrajog remarked in a judgment passed on Tuesday.

"It is apparent that the accused has not contributed to the delay," the Court observed.

"From the orders passed by the Magistrate, it was apparent that a totally unprepared and ungeared prosecution was just not interested in pursuing the complaint with any sense of purpose or diligence," the Court added.

Following a raid at the residence of Goel in 1980, Assistant Director of ED in April 1986 had lodged a complaint against Goel alleging illegal transfer of money to the bank account of B B Kuttappa, an NRI, in Germany.
   
According to the judgment, the reasons for which the matter was time and again adjourned by the till 1994 was termed as "unexplainable" by the Court.

The judge was critical about the fact that prosecution had sought the Magistrate adjourn the matter for several years to verify the death of prime accused Kuttappa, who died in
August 1994.

"The orders passed by the Magistrate between 27.8.94 to October 1998 show that the prosecution got the matter adjourned stating that they were to verify the fact about Kuttappa's death," the Judge said.

The Court accepted the submission made by the counsel for the accused that ED got confirmation about Kuttappa's death when the accused supplied a copy of newspaper clipping in which a news item was published.

Expressing anguish over the lackadaisical attitude of the prosecution, the Court noted "I hope and expect that the ED would set its house in order and the department would be fully geared before filing a complaint."

The Court accepted the petitioner's another submission that the ED failed to provide documents to the accused and he had to inspect court files to prepare the case, resulting in a delay.

The ED had alleged that Goel, the director of a private company, had transferred 25,000 Deutsche Mark to the account of Kuttappa, a Germany-based Indian, in violation of FERA.