Temporary relief for Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra from eviction notices
The ED won't enforce eviction notices against Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra until their appeal on a property attachment is heard by the tribunal.
MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) told the Bombay high court on Thursday that it would not act upon the eviction notices issued to actor Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra till their application challenging a property attachment order is heard and decided by an appellate tribunal.
On September 27, the ED issued notices to Shetty and her businessman husband, directing them to vacate their house in Mumbai’s Juhu area and a farmhouse in Pune in connection with a money laundering case.
The properties were attached in April via a Provisional Attachment Order (PAO) by the ED. As per the PMLA’s provisions, once a PAO is confirmed by an adjudicating authority, the aggrieved persons get 45 days to challenge the same at PMLA Appellate Tribunal in Delhi. The adjudicating authority under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act had on September 18 confirmed the agency’s orders, provisionally attaching the two properties in the money laundering case against Kundra. In that backdrop, on September 27, the agency issued an eviction order to Kundra with respect to two of his assets – their Juhu residence and the farmhouse in Pune, against which the couple approached the High Court by filing separate petitions.
On Wednesday, when the petitions came up for hearing, their lawyer, advocate Prashant Patil, pointed out that as per the PMLA’s provisions, once a PAO is confirmed by an adjudicating authority, the aggrieved persons gets 45 days to challenge the same at PMLA Appellate Tribunal in Delhi, but the agency issued the eviction notice before the lapse of the 45 - day limit and therefore, requested the court to stay the eviction as an interim measure.”
At this, the court had on Wednesday asked ED in such a situation, whether a stay on eviction can be given till the petitioner’s plea for the stay is decided by the PMLA’s Appellate Tribunal and also whether the petitioner should have approached the PMLA Appellate Tribunal first, instead of the HC. ED’s special counsel Satya Prakash had submitted to the high court that he would take instructions from the agency and state its stand on the issue on Thursday. A division bench of justice Revati Mohite Dere and justice Prithviraj Chavan posted their petitions for hearing on Thursday.
During the hearing on Thursday, ED’s special counsel Satya Prakash submitted the agency’s stand, saying that the ED will not take any action with regard to the eviction notices it had served on the couple in connection with the properties in Juhu and Pune until they move the PMLA’s Appellate Tribunal and it decides their plea for a stay on the eviction. ED’s statement was recorded by the court and the couple’s writ petition was disposed of.
Satya Prakash told the court on Wednesday that the agency’s action was as per the provisions of the PMLA. The special counsel submitted to the court that as per PMLA ‘s section 8 (4), once a PAO is confirmed by an Adjudicating Authority, the ED should take possession of the attached property/asset forthwith and so, its action was as per the law. Opposing any stay on the eviction notice, the special counsel had said that the petitioner could approach the Appellate Authority as per PMLA instead for redressal.
Earlier, in April, the ED had provisionally attached assets worth ₹97.79 crore belonging to businessman Kundra, including a Juhu flat in Shilpa Shetty’s name, amid a money-laundering probe linked to a ₹6,600-crore bitcoin-based Ponzi scheme. According to ED sources, Kundra had allegedly received 285 bitcoins, valued at around ₹150 crore, from the deceased case mastermind, Amit Bhardwaj, for a failed Bitcoin mining project in Ukraine. Apart from the Juhu flat, the agency had provisionally attached a bungalow in Pune and his equity shares.
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