Court accepts CBI's closure report in case of fraud despite ED's opposition

A special CBI court here has accepted a closure report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a case of alleged fraud against Pushpak Bullions Private Limited and some bank officials, even as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) opposed it. The ED, probing a related case, had attached the properties of a firm controlled by Shridhar Patankar, brother-in-law of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. The mere fact that the ED case was pending before a Prevention of Money Laundering Act Court which has taken its cognizance would not bind the CBI to submit a charge ­sheet as the latter had found no evidence, the court said.

While special judge A Sayyad accepted the probe agency's closure report on June 29, the detailed order became available on Friday.

In 2017, the ED had registered a case against Pushpak Bullions, bank officials and some private persons, claiming that during demonetisation, Rs 47.75 crore and Rs 37.15 crore in cash were deposited into the current accounts of Pihu Gold and Satnam Jewels, respectively, at Zaveri Bazar branch of the Union Bank of India.

The amount was later transferred into Non-Performing Asset account of Pushpak Bullions in the same branch. The fraudulent transaction was carried out on the written instruction of a senior official of the bank on November 11, 2016, three days after the central government scrapped currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 denominations, it was alleged.

Further, the ED alleged that the cash was directly deposited into the accounts of Pihu gold and Satnam Jewels. The accused thus converted a huge amount of black money into white money, it claimed. The ED, in March 2022, attached properties worth Rs 6.45 crore of a firm allegedly owned by Shridhar Patankar in connection with this demonetisation-related case.

The Thackeray-led Shiv Sena had alleged that the action was part of the political vendetta which the Union government was pursuing against its leaders and their family members.

Based on the ED case, the CBI too had started a parallel probe.

But it did not find any “substantive evidence', and filed its first closure report in October 2020. The court rejected it and directed the CBI to carry out “further impartial and fair investigation”.

The CBI filed another closure report in December last year, which the court accepted on Wednesday. ''No oral as well as documentary and circumstantial evidence have come on record to substantiate the allegations either against private persons or bank officials,” the special CBI court noted.

It also said that CBI and ED are different agencies, and neither of them can insist that the other carry out investigation in any particular direction.

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