Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Feb 2: The high court has dismissed a petition that had questioned enforcement directorate's action against I Monetary Advisory (IMA) involved with the multi-crore scandal.

Assistant director of the enforcement directorate, Basavaraj R Magdum, had filed a complaint in the court against the said company. Abbas Mohammed Khan had questioned the right of the officer to file a case in the special courts. Judge of the high court, K Nataraj, who presided over a single judge bench, dismissed the petition.

The judge observed that through a notification, the central government had vested the above officer with the powers necessary to file complaints in the court. It also stated that the assistant directors, as per section 49 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act and therefore he was within his rights in filing the complaint, the bench said and dismissed the petition by observing that there is no need for the high court to interfere in the matter.

Abbas Muhammed Khan, named as the ninth accused in the charge sheet against IMA, had questioned the special court's initiative to start hearing the case on the complaint of Magdum in 2019. He had argued that Basavaraj R Magdum, officer who filed the complaint, worked as deputy superintendent f police in the Lokayukta and therefore the officer did not have the right to register cases under PML. The central government, its objections, had said that Magdum is on deployment to the enforcement directorate and has the right to register cases.