The Hindu : New Delhi News : ED officer denies threatening petitioner

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Sunday, Apr 17, 2011
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New Delhi

ED officer denies threatening petitioner

J. Venkatesan

New Delhi: Enforcement Directorate officer Prabhakant has denied in the Supreme Court the allegation that he threatened Prof. S.K. Dube for writing to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about himself and the ED Director Arun Mathur.

Senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for Mr. Prabhakant, was speaking before a Bench of Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar hearing petitions relating to black money.

During the last hearing, the Bench had directed the Delhi Police Commissioner to file an affidavit in respect of Prof. Dube's allegations contained in his complaint against the officers. Mr. Dube's letter had alleged that Mr. Mathur, Mr. Prabhakant and another ED official S.K. Sahni visited Kolkata on July 1, 2009 and enjoyed the hospitality of a private company under the investigation of the ED.

On Friday, Mr. Salve said Mr. Prabhakant met Prof. Dube in his house as he knew him well. He did not threaten Prof. Dube as was alleged in the complaint. On the visit of Mr. Mathur and Mr. Prabhakant to Kolkata, he said it was true that the two visited the city.

They stayed in a hotel and not in a guest house as alleged by the complainant. The dates of their visit were also wrongly mentioned.

He brought to the court's notice that one of the petitioners, Jasvir Singh, an IPS officer posted as DIG in Uttar Pradesh, suppressed this information in his affidavit.

On behalf of the Centre, Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam denied the allegation against Mr. Mathur and Mr. Prabhakant. He said he would file an affidavit in this regard in two weeks.

Senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for Prof. Dube, said Mr. Prabhakant's visit Prof. Dube's house was only to threaten him.

Justice Reddy then asked Prof. Dube to file an affidavit. He also wanted the Delhi CoP to file a status report on the investigation carried out on the complaint.

On the demand of the petitioners, Ram Jethmalani and others, for disclosure of the names of those who had stashed money abroad, the SG said it would not be possible in view of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA).

He said the government would reveal the names of six persons who had deposited money with the Liechtenstein Bank in Germany and who were being prosecuted by the authorities. In respect of the others, the names would be disclosed after prosecution was launched.

Arguments will continue on April 20.

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