The Supreme Court on Thursday granted interim protection from arrest to former Chhattisgarh bureaucrat Anil Tuteja in a plea challenging Allahabad High Court's refusal to quash criminal proceedings initiated against him in Uttar Pradesh in connection with the Chhattisgarh liquor scam [Anil Tuteja v. Station House Officers and Others].
A division bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih granted interim relief to Tuteja after noting that other accused persons in the case had already been granted relief by the top court.
"Issue notice. Even if petitioner (Tuteja) appears before trial court pursuant to High Court's decision, he shall not be taken into the custody," the Court directed today.
The Court also sought responses from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and State of Uttar Pradesh on Tuteja's plea and posted the matter for January 21.
On October 4, the High Court had refused to quash proceedings initiated against Tuteja, Anwar Dhebar (brother of Raipur's mayor) and two others in connection with the Chhattisgarh liquor scam case.
The case against Tuteja and others involves allegations of a ₹2,000 crore liquor syndicate racket operating in Chhattisgarh during the tenure of Congress Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.
The ED registered a money laundering case in the matter on July 4, 2023. During its probe, the ED also found that there was a UP link to the case.
Witness statements recorded by the ED allegedly revealed details about a company in Noida which was illegally granting tenders to supply holograms (which are fixed to liquor bottles for its authentication and to confirm excise duty payments) to the Excise Department of Chhattisgarh.
Based on communication by ED dated July 28, 2023, a first information report (FIR) was registered by Uttar Pradesh on July 30, 2023 against Tuteja and others.
Later, on April 8 this year, the Supreme Court quashed the ED's July 2023 money laundering complaint on the ground that there was no predicate offence (the ED's complaint was based on certain provisions of the Income Tax Act which did not fall in the PMLA's list of scheduled offences).
Four of the accused in the case - Anil Tuteja, Anwar Dhebar, Arun Pati Tripathi and Niranjan Das - then filed petitions before the Allahabad High Court to quash the UP police FIR as well.
In its decision, the High Court opined that even if the Supreme Court had quashed a money laundering case in a related matter, it would not prevent the continuation of criminal proceedings initiated in Uttar Pradesh against Tuteja and others.
The High Court said that the witness statements collected by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) and shared with the Uttar Pradesh police can continue to form the basis of criminal proceedings initiated in Uttar Pradesh (UP).
Hence, it refused to quash the case.
This led to the appeal before the top court.
Today, when the matters of the four accused persons (including Tuteja) were taken up, the Supreme Court was informed that notice was yet to be served on some respondents in connected matters.
While issuing notice on Tuteja's plea, the Court proceeded to issue fresh notice to unserved respondents.
[Live Courtroom Exchange]