Labelling CBI as the ‘Congress Bureau of Investigation’ or alleging ED officials as unethical, Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy knows it all. Be it CBI or ED, YSR Congress is known accusing them for targeting a guiltless Jagan for political reasons. Jagan and his media’s attempts against a CBI joint director by alleging irregularities in his phone records have failed. Likewise, the irregularities about ED officials may backfire.
A fact has emerged that frustrated Jagan, on Feb 17th 2017, wrote a letter addressing to the Prime Minister about the vindictive nature of ED officials. This letter summarizes how ED has attached the properties of Jagan without giving him a wait time. In fact the letter names two officials S. A Uma Shankar Goud and B.S Gandhi. He not only alleged that ED was working at the behest of TDP but also said that the CBI worked for UPA earlier. He claims that some properties which were attached under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) did not even pertain to the Disproportionate assets case. He claims that the net investments were 743.2 crores while his and his wife’s entities worth 1500 crores were being attached which is more than double. Some properties which were procured even before YSR became CM are being attached. He raises the issue of contempt of court by saying that ED did not give him enough time to appeal to the court before attaching properties. In the letter reads, “This is specifically done to cater to the political interests of Telugu Desham Party and to cause sufferance to the political party headed by me in the state of AP.” He fumed that ED summoned his wife, while the CBI did not find fault with the women of YSR household.
Jagan has time and again challenged all front-line officers’ decisions. However, ED Adjudication Authority comprises of three Members bench, one each from the fields of ‘Law’, ‘Administration’ and ‘Finance or accountancy’. It functions within the Department of Revenue; Ministry of Finance of the Central Government with its headquarters in New Delhi. The authority decides that any property involved in money-laundering, the adjudicating Authority shall, by an order in writing confirm the attachment of the property made or retention of property or record seized. Consequently, every property of Jagan attached by ED has approval from New Delhi. The argument that two officers were working at the behest of TDP government could be fabricated as the three-member bench works under the Union Government.
While Jagan giving a photocopy of this letter on May10 is being deliberated, just a day before that reports surfaced Union Cabinet is planning to empower ED and IT departments by allowing them to auction the attached assets right after a chargesheet is filed or right before the trial begins in court. The current process taking a lot of time for the case to reach the stage of liquidation process, which can only begin after the court has reached its verdict. If the PMLA is amended and the new provisions are introduced, it might impact Jagan more than anyone else.
