2020 Delhi Riots: HC rejects Tahir Hussain's plea against framing of money laundering charges
New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court on Thursday rejected a petition by former AAP leader Tahir Hussain challenging framing of money laundering charges against him in the 2020 northeast Delhi riots.
"The petition and the accompanying applications are declined," said Justice Anu Malhotra.
The judge had reserved the order on Hussain's plea on November 15.
The plea challenged a trial court's November 3 order by which charges for the alleged offence under Sections 3 (offence of money laundering) and 4 (punishment for the offence of money laundering) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) were framed against him.
Hussain argued before the high court that no property or proceeds of crime was seized from him to justify framing of charges under the anti-money laundering law.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had opposed his challenge, contending that Hussain was part of a conspiracy to fund the riots by using the proceeds of crime.
The trial court had said in its order that prima facie Hussain conspired to engage in money laundering and the proceeds generated from the crime were used for the riots.
The agency claimed Hussain had paid for engineering the riots and that there was a criminal conspiracy to fund the communal conflagration.
According to the ED complaint, Hussain fraudulently withdrew money from the bank accounts of companies owned or controlled by him through bogus entry operators on the strength of fake bills.
Hussain was the ultimate beneficiary of the laundered money and the funds obtained through criminal conspiracy were put to use during the riots in February 2020, the ED complaint alleged.
Delhi Police have registered three FIRs against Hussain and others under various sections of the Indian Penal Code in connection with the riots.
Based on the FIRs, inquiries were initiated and the ED registered an ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) on March 9, 2020.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
