Hooda moves HC, seeks quashing of ED case

CHANDIGARH: Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has approached the Punjab and Haryana high court seeking quashing of the enforcement directorate (ED) probe of alleged money laundering in allotment of a plot to Associated Journal Limited (AJL), publisher of the National Herald newspaper.

The plea will be taken up by the bench of justice Ajay Tewari and justice Vikas Bahl on Wednesday. An ECIR was registered by the ED on July 15, 2016. It filed prosecution complaint before the Panchkula trial court on August 26, 2019 and the trial court took note of it on September 26, 2019 and summoned Hooda as an accused.

On July 5 this year, the trial court passed an order that it will hear arguments on framing of charges on the next date and decide plea seeking deferring of hearing in the case.

The plea for the same was filed by Hooda in view of the HC staying trial against him in the CBI case into same controversy.

He has argued that there is neither any legal sanction nor any material warranting his prosecution under the offence of money laundering. The complaint is liable to be dismissed as the same is violative of the constitutional protection granted under Article 20 (1) of the Constitution of India against retrospective operation of penal provision.

He has claimed that no prosecution can be lawfully launched on the basis of a complaint which, admittedly from the respondent side, is subject matter of further investigation before the prosecuting agency.