CBI court reserves order in drug 'kingpin' Jaffer Sadiq’s bail plea in money laundering case
On Tuesday, S Ezhil Velavan, the additional judge of the CBI court, reserved the final order to December 17 (Tuesday) after hearing all the parties in the bail plea.
Jaffer Sadiq (File)
CHENNAI: The CBI special court in the city reserved the final orders in the bail plea of alleged drug kingpin Jaffer Sadiq and his brother in the money laundering case connected to the Delhi drug haul.
On Tuesday, S Ezhil Velavan, the additional judge of the CBI court, reserved the final order to December 17 (Tuesday) after hearing all the parties in the bail plea.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG), ARL Sundaresan, on behalf of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), submitted that Jaffer through a drug network generated huge money which was later routed to his bank accounts, thus establishing the proceeds of crime connecting to the scheduled offence. Hence, the ball is now at the court of the accused and Jaffer has to prove his innocence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ASG further vehemently objected to the bail plea as it would affect the investigation.
Senior counsel Abudu Kumar Rajaratnam, appearing for Jaffer, contended that the enforcement agency didn’t prove any proceeds of crime against the accused which is the quintessential principle to rope him under PMLA.
Pointing out that there is a lack of material to establish the proceeds of the crime, the PMLA cannot be attracted in the case, the counsel submitted that his client is not entitled to prove his innocence.
He also submitted the year-on-year income tax returns of Jaffer and defended ED’s claim that Jaffer had received a huge amount of tainted money through bank accounts.
Submitting that ED failed to assess the quantum of alleged tainted money routed by Jaffer from the drug mafia network during the check period, and there are no proceeds of crime, he sought bail.
On March 9, the Delhi unit of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) arrested Jaffer, the deputy organiser of DMK NRI wing for Chennai West, for his key role in the alleged trafficking of the narcotic drug Pseudoedpherine to the international drug market including Australia and New Zealand by the NCB.
Meanwhile, the ED registered an enforcement case information report (ECIR) against Jaffer alleging a money laundering offence connected to the drug trafficking case, and also roped in Mohammed Saleem under the investigation.