MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a petition on Thursday before the Bombay high court for directions to the state to transfer to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and stay the ongoing probe into an FIR registered by the state anti-corruption bureau against hotelier Jeetu Navlani.
The ED said it is seeking order for conducting an “impartial and unbiased investigation into the existing FIR alleging the link between businessman and ED officers”. The Maharashtra Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) had on May 5 registered an FIR against Navlani for allegedly collecting Rs 58 crore from businessmen by promising them protection from any action by the ED. The ED officers, however, have not been named as accused in the FIR.
The surrounding circumstances under which the ACB has registered the FIR “smacks of malafide” and an apparent and desperate attempt by the state machinery to “thwart the various investigations initiated by the officers of the ED against the high and mighty in the state, said the ED.
The ED has said that from several public statements and tweets made by senior leaders of the Shiv Sena party, including Sena party spokesperson Sanjay Raut, it contends that “it is evident” that the investigation by the state police has been started with obvious purpose and will not be unbiased or objective. The entire action of registering a criminal case is motivated to derail the investigation and allegedly keep the ED officers under threat of malicious and vexatious prosecution and to prevent them from exercising their legitimate statutory powers to unearth the offense of money laundering committed allegedly by several highly powerful political figures in Maharashtra, it said.
