Nagpur: A special PMLA court has dropped Enforcement Directorate (ED) proceedings in a coal scam case against Nagpur businessman Manoj Jayaswal, his son Abhishek Jayaswal, as well as media baron Vijay Darda, along with his son Devendra Darda. This was also the first case registered under the coal scam series, said advocate Khonisha Ganvir from the defence team.This relieves Jayaswals from five of the six ED cases against them, said the lawyer. The ED case was dropped at a stage when the trial began, and the matter was at the stage of recording prosecution evidence. This decision relates to the ED vs AMR Iron and Steel and others case.The PMLA court ruled that proceedings cannot stand, no matter at what stage the case was, because of the accused’s acquittal in the CBI case, which made the foundation for ED action in the form of predicate offence. The statutory period of filing appeal against acquittal in the CBI matter has ended. The ED lawyers have not shared details of any appeal filed either, said the court. CBI booked Jayaswal and others in a 24.6 crore graft case.The prosecution argued that the powers of dropping the proceedings only lay with high court. The judges, in turn, observed that since judicial substratum of prosecution has ceased to exist, the ED proceedings cannot continue merely because there is no specific provision of vesting power with the court to dismiss the proceedings at this stage.“The current decision stands out against other rulings on dropping ED cases,” said Ganvir, who assisted the lead defence counsel Mudit Jain and Yugant Sharma. In the other four cases, the proceedings were dropped before the stage of framing of charges, which means the trial was yet to begin. In the AMR case, the charges were framed and trial was at an advanced stage,” she said.
