New Delhi, Nov 4 The Supreme Court on Wednesday requested the chief justice of the Patna High Court to decide on a bail plea of Bihar-based contractor Rishu Shree, who has been in jail for the last five months in connection with a money laundering case related to alleged commissions in the grant of public tenders in the state.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana took note of submissions of senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for the accused, that the chargesheet has already been filed in the case and yet he has been in jail for the last five months.
The bench said that it would request the chief justice of the high court to list the bail plea before the roster bench for adjudication within a month.
Earlier, the top court, on June 16, had granted protection from arrest to Shree, who is accused of acting as a middleman and charging commissions on total tender values to facilitate awarding of Bihar government contracts to specific companies.
The bench had asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) not to arrest him for the next four weeks.
“We grant protection for four weeks with the liberty to file a bail application before the (Patna) High Court. The High Court is requested to decide the bail application within the period of protection,” the CJI had said.
The bench, however, had refused to interfere with the high court’s order of May 18 rejecting the plea of the accused seeking quashing of the FIRs. Later, the contractor was taken into custody in the case.
The Patna High Court on October 15 questioned the ED and Bihar’s Special Vigilance Unit over their “failure” to act against several senior officials, allegedly linked to the multi-crore tender scam, observing that the authorities concerned appeared to be trying to “save some and implicate few”.
It said the petitioner, who is in custody, appeared to be a “pawn” rather than the kingpin of the alleged money laundering operation, with the principal actors remaining “behind the curtains”.
The high court passed the order while hearing the case in which Shree was the petitioner and ED Patna Zone the respondent.
Earlier, the high court, in its order of May 18, had dismissed Shree’s petition seeking quashing of the money laundering case, holding that an ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) is an “internal document” and not a statutory one akin to an FIR.
It said that ECIRs are generally immune from quashing at the investigative stage.
The high court further held that the ED officials are not “police officers” and therefore, the safeguards of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) regarding confessions do not strictly apply to Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) proceedings.
Shree, an alleged associate of senior IAS officer Sanjeev Hans, has accused the ED of “evergreening” its jurisdiction by initiating multiple, parallel investigations based on the same factual basis and investigative material.
The legal battle stems from a series of investigations that began with a 2023 FIR involving allegations against IAS officer Sanjeev Hans and ex-MLA Gulab Yadav.
While the original investigation focused on specific financial transactions, the ED subsequently registered a second case alleging a “larger conspiracy” involving the manipulation of government tenders across various Bihar departments, including BUIDCO and the Water Resources Department.
The ED alleged that Shree acted as a middleman, charging five to seven per cent commissions on total tender values to facilitate the awarding of contracts to specific companies.
The ED claims to have recovered 61 sale deeds worth over Rs 58 crore and details of international travel sponsored for high-ranking officials.
The plea sought quashing of the ECIR and all consequential proceedings besides protection against any coercive action, including arrest, during the pendency of the petition.
(PTI News)
