A trial court here has stayed an order allowing a Delhi-based businessman to travel to the United Kingdom and Dubai as he was allegedly involved in a Rs 1,300 crore money laundering case.
Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau stayed the August 27 order of a magisterial court which had suspended till October 31 the Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against Vikas Chaudhary by the Income Tax Department.
Since there was no case pending against Chaudhary before the trial court, it erred by entertaining his application to travel abroad, the judge said.
The Additional Director of the I-T department challenged the magisterial court's order saying that the additional chief metropolitan magistrate (ACMM) did not have the jurisdiction to allow the application of Chaudhary and claimed that he might tamper with evidence abroad.
The sessions court said, "The ACMM (special acts) casually brushed aside the objection (of the I-T) by observing that its court was the only court in Delhi for dealing with trial of complaints filed by the Income Tax Department in Delhi.
"The ACMM (Special Acts) fell in error by failing to notice that on the date when the application filed by the respondent (Chaudhary) was being dealt with, no complaint had been filed by the Income Tax Department against the respondent and no trial was pending before it."
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