Moin Qureshi case: Special Delhi court reserves Satish Sana Babu's bail plea order

A special Delhi court on Saturday reserved the order on a bail plea of businessman Satish Sana Babu in connection with a money laundering case related to controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi.

Special Judge Anuradha Shukla Bhardwaj will pass the order on August 19 on the bail plea of Satish after concluding the arguments.

DP Singh, counsel for Enforcement Directorate (ED) argued, "We have a short window of 60 days of which 20 days have passed and hence it's necessary for me that till the time I file a charge sheet, bail should not be granted and all others were granted bail after charge sheet was filed."

 

"We made him accused from a witness as the investigation reveals many things against him. We don't want to go to a stage where he enjoys the immunity without telling anything. This is the stage amidst the investigation, we can make him an accused and now granting him bail will affect the probe," he further argued.

Senior advocates KTS Tulsi and Mohit Mathur, who appeared for accused Satish argued, "My statements cannot lead to my arrest as I was a witness and there is immunity provided to a witness that no such answers that a witness is compelled to give can subject him to be arrested."

Mathur argued," The statements I made to them in 2017 were recorded under section 50 of PMLA of which they determined my status as a witness. Can they say now that my statements were unreliable?."

On August 9, the special court sent Satish to judicial custody till August 23 for questioning in connection with the case.

Satish was arrested by the ED on July 26 in connection with a money-laundering probe against Qureshi and others.

During the investigation of the case, it came to the fore that Satish was a close aid of Qureshi, who is accused of hawala transactions through Delhi-based operators.

In October last year, on the basis of a complaint filed by Satish, a case was registered against the then CBI director Alok Verma and special director Rakesh Asthana on charges of accepting a bribe from a businessman, who was related to the case.