Anti-Corruption Bureau won't file FIR against Mumbai Congress chief

Maharashtra's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) today informed the Bombay High Court that after conducting a preliminary probe it has decided not to file an FIR against Mumbai Congress chief Kripashankar Singh and his family in disproportionate assets case.

Advocate General Ravi Kadam said the ACB has laid down a criteria not to file an FIR in cases where disproportionate assets were up to 10 per cent of known sources of income of the person concerned. In case of Singh and his wife Maltidevi, it was a little higher at 11.69 per cent. Hence, the agency had decided not to file an FIR.

After hearing arguments, a bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Roshan Dalvi reserved order till October 10 on a PIL seeking probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into allegations that Singh, a former Maharashtra minister, and his family had "amassed unaccounted wealth".

Income Tax Department informed the court its officers were currently conducting assessment of income earned by Singh and his family in the past and that they were involved in tracing the source of funds possessed by them.

Enforcement Directorate (ED) said so far it had not gathered any material to show that money earned by the Congress leader and his family were proceeds of scheduled offences listed in the Money Laundering Act.

Mahesh Jethmalani, counsel for petitioner Sanjay Tiwari, alleged that the probe conducted by ACB was "perverse" and appealed to the court to form an SIT to probe the matter.

The HC had earlier asked these agencies to probe the allegations levelled in the PIL and register an FIR if they came across material to suggest assets owned by Singh and his family were disproportionate to known sources of income or money earned by them were proceeds of crime.