New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Board of Direct Taxes to complete the probe in two months into the allegations against Mohd Iqbal, a former legislator in Uttar Pradesh that he had amassed disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 10,000 crores.
A Bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justices AMK Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud passed this order after hearing senior counsel Haren Raval, appearing for petitioner Ranvir Singh, Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh and counsel for Mr. Iqbal strongly opposing the PIL.
In response to the notice the ASG informed the court that the ED and CBDT were examining the report of the Serious Fraud Investigation Office in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs which has indicated that prima facie most of the companies floated by Mr. Iqbal are fake companies and there is a possibility of money laundering. The ASG sought three months for completion of the probe by ED and CBDT in the light of the findings of SFIO. The bench, however, asked them to finish the probe in two months and file a status report in the court.
When Mr. Raval submitted that though a copy of the complaint was given to the CBI, nothing had happened, the Bench asked the CBI to look into the allegations and pass appropriate orders in accordance with law.
In his petition, the Petitioner alleged that Mr. Mohd. Iqbal, former BSP MLC has accumulated assets worth Rs.10,000 crores and all the evidence has been annexed to substantiate his allegations. It was alleged that Mr. Iqbal had amassed disproportionate assets using laundered and black money, i.e. unknown sources of income, who is known to work as liaison with State Government and head the mining mafia in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and is also the founder Chancellor of Global University, Saharanpur.
It said “many of these companies in which Mohd. Iqbal or his family members are shareholders in over 111 companies, which have zero or minimal revenues while their share capital runs in hundreds of crores of rupees. This is clearly tax evasion and use of funds generated through black money. Such illegal funds are parked in these sham companies with no operations but huge share capitals. Mr. Iqbal also owns huge properties across U.P., Haryana, Uttarakhand, and several Gulf countries where he has close financial links.
Since Mohd. Iqbal is a sitting legislator, the declaration of assets filed by him in U.P., Vidhan Sabha only discloses his assets to be worth Rs.3.50 crores, whereas publicly available information shows his assets to be worth over Rs.10,000 crores. He sets up hundreds of companies to be used as conduits for concealing his black monies. The Bench made it clear to the ED, Income Tax department or the Ministry of Corporate Affairs or any other authority to conduct an independent probe into the petitioner’s complaint and submit a report to the court on the next date of hearing after six weeks.
