File photo of Pankaj Bhujbal, son of former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal.
The Bombay High Court today extended the interim protection from arrest granted to Pankaj Bhujbal, son of former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and over 10 others who are facing charges of money laundering in Maharashtra Sadan scam.
While Pankaj Bhujbal, businessman Asif Balwa, Vinod Goenka and four others had challenged the non-bailable warrants (NBW) issued by a special court for Prevention of Money Laundering Act cases, 11 others accused in the case had approached the High Court seeking anticipatory bail following non-bailable warrants issued against them.
Justice Sadhana Jadhav, while hearing the petition of Pankaj Bhujabl and others challenging the non-bailable warrants against them, said a single bench does not have jurisdiction to hear the petition and granted them liberty to move a division bench tomorrow.
While doing so, Justice Jadhav said she will extend the interim protection granted to the petitioners till June 10 by when they can approach a division bench.
Meanwhile, another single bench of Justice PN Deshmukh extended till July 1 the interim protection from arrest granted to 11 others accused in the case.
The accused are Pravin Jain, Sanjiv Jain, Chandrasekhar Sarda, Jagdish Prasad Purohit, Bimalkumar Jain, Sanjay Kakade, Kapil Puri, Rajesh Mistry, Vipul Kankaria, Sailesh Mehta and Suresh Jajodia.
The court today also allowed Sanjay Kakade to visit Hyderabad for a business assignment tomorrow and return by evening.
According to Enforcement Directorate, the accused allegedly conspired with Chhagan Bhujbal, former PWD minister, to divert or 'launder' the "kickbacks" received by him through their firms.
The petitioners argued that the offences they are charged with are non-cognizable and warrants could not have been issued against them because they were not arrested during the interrogation which took place earlier.
On March 30 this year, Enforcement Directorate had filed a 11,500-page chargesheet naming Chhagan Bhujbal, Pankaj, Mr Bhujbal's nephew Sameer and firms such as DB Realty, Balwa group, Neelkamal Realtors and Builders, Neelkamal Central Apartment LLP and Kakade Infrastructure in connection with the case.
The charges relate to alleged irregularities in the construction of the state guest house 'Maharashtra Sadan' in Delhi and the Kalina land-grabbing case in Mumbai.