Mumbai court rejects plea by Congress workers seeking blanket anticipatory bail for MVA members

A Mumbai court rejected a plea filed by members of the Congress party seeking blanket anticipatory bail for Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) belonging to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which is currently the opposition in Maharashtra Assembly. .Special judge under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) MG Deshpande rejected the plea on the ground that it was not maintainable."There is absolutely no strong prima-facie case to grant any relief either interim or even final made out by the applicants. Applicants are not apprehending their arrest. They are praying interim protection to third parties. Passing such blanket order will set a bad tradition. Basically I hold that, application itself is not maintainable" the order reads. .The Court had issued notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the matter on June 18 but the agency did not enter appearance.The plea, which was filed when the MVA was in power in the State, contended that the Central government under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party was misusing the central investigative agencies to harass the members of other parties especially components of MVA (i.e. NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena) with the malafide intention and ulterior motive."The BJP is feeling totally uncomfortable and members of the said party including Subramaniyam Swami, Devendra Fadnavis, Kirit Somayya and others are trying to make false complaints against members of the MVA and in that process by using the central agency such as ED arrested the then Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and thereafter Cabinet Minister Nawab Malik and by creating and manipulating various illegal matters and also unconnected factors as the two persons are connected with MVA government,” the plea emphasized.It was further stated that the Central government run by BJP was having all assets at its disposal and was trying to antagonize the whole opposition party.The plea also raised an apprehension that the Central government was misusing the availability of such resources by creating fear in the minds of the people of the opposition party.The applicants had, therefore, sought the following reliefs:Grant of bail in cases where persons part of the MVA are involved;Interim relief that ED and all the central agencies be directed not to arrest any members of MVA and opposite parties if they are involved in false allegations by the Central government..The judge observed that admittedly there was no Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) against the MPs and MLAs of "alleged MVA". "The applicants who are not apprehending their arrest are apprehending arrest of MPs and MLAs of MVA. This is very astonishing and peculiar situation made in this application. Throughout the application, there is not a whisper that, the three applicants are apprehending their arrest. On this count itself the application is not maintainable and deserves to be rejected" the judge observed.