New Delhi
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear the bail plea of Mukhtar Ansari’s son Abbas Ansari in the money laundering case. The court has also issued a notice to the ED on Abbas’ bail plea. A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Sandeep Mehta issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and asked it to file a reply on the special leave petition of Abbas Ansari, MLA from Mau in Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier, the Allahabad High Court had rejected Abbas’ bail plea in its order dated May 9. However, it had directed the lower court to complete the hearing as soon as possible. A bench of Justice Jaspreet Singh of the Allahabad High Court had said, “This court is unable to satisfy itself prima facie in terms of section 45 of the PMLA that the applicant is not guilty or he cannot commit any crime while on bail.”
The court also took cognizance of the money trail presented by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the case against Abbas Ansari. The statement said that the money trail links Ansari to the transaction of money from two companies – M/s Vikas Construction and M/s Aagaaz. The ED alleges that Ansari used these companies for money laundering. The ED has initiated the investigation on the basis of three separate FIRs under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). In the first criminal case, it was alleged that the partners of a construction company had encroached upon public property by tampering with the records.
At the same time, the second FIR alleges that Mukhtar Ansari took money from the MLA fund to build a school. But, no school was built and the land was used for agriculture. The third FIR alleges that Ansari used his influence to grab government land and built an illegal house.