Karnataka HC quashes ED's order freezing bank accounts of Amnesty International
Bengaluru, Mar 23: The Karnataka High Court has quashed a 2018 Enforcement Directorate order of freezing the bank accounts of Amnesty International India Private Limited.
The petition filed by Amnesty International in 2018 was allowed and the notices quashed, the single-judge bench of Justice K S Hemalekha said in its February 24 order. The copy of the judgment was made available recently.
In the judgment, the court said: "On perusal of the provisions of Section 132(8A) of the Act, it is evident that order under Sub-Section (3) of Section 132 of the Income Tax Act would not be in force beyond sixty days from the date of the order. In light of the provisions of Section 132(8A), the impugned notices dated 25.10.2018 have lost their efficacy by efflux of time as the period of sixty days has expired."
The court, however, said all the contentions are left open to be urged before the appropriate authority in accordance with law.
Calling itself a company "engaged in the business of rendering, research (primary and secondary) and consultancy services regarding human rights", Amnesty claimed in the petition before the High Court that on October 25, 2018, without any notice to it, a search and seizure was conducted on its premises. Several documents, agreements and mobile phones were scrutinised and confiscated.
Following this, the bank accounts of Amnesty in HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were frozen by a Government Order without any notice to it. This was challenged in the petition before the High Court.
The advocate for Amnesty pointed to the Greenpeace India Society vs Union of India case in which a similar issue was decided. The High Court accepted this contention.
In the Greenpeace case, the NGO sought to quash the order blocking its financial assets which had been frozen by an order of the Ministry of Home Affairs following a bank transfer from another NGO located in Netherlands. The High Court held that the Ministry's arguments were not satisfactory enough to freeze the financial assets of Greenpeace and ordered that the bank allow the NGO to have access to its accounts.
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Nashik court sends ‘godman’ Kharat to seven-day judicial custody in third rape case
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Nashik (PTI): A court in Maharashtra's Nashik on Monday remanded self-styled godman Ashok Kharat to judicial custody till April 20 in a third case of rape against him for allegedly sexually exploiting a pregnant woman.
The special investigation team (SIT) produced Kharat for a virtual hearing in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate B N Ichpurani as his police custody in the case ended on Monday.
The SIT presented the remand report and sought judicial custody for Kharat, a former merchant navy officer. The court then remanded him to a seven-day judicial custody till April 20.
In the third case, Kharat, who was first arrested in mid-March, is accused of sexually exploiting a seven-month pregnant woman, the wife of his office staffer.
According to the complaint lodged by the victim's husband, the accused sexually assaulted the survivor on multiple occasions, including in his office in Nashik, between November 2023 and December 2025.
Kharat also conducted a ritual with the pregnant woman at a temple in Mirgaon village of Sinnar taluka of the district, it said.
Although the victim informed her husband about her plight, he did not believe her. But when he heard about complaints of Kharat's misbehaviour with other women, he planted a spy camera in the astrologer's office to find out the truth and recorded his acts.
The employee later handed over to the police a pen drive containing objectionable videos of the 'godman'.
Kharat faces nearly a dozen cases, eight of them related to sexual assaults.
The SIT, meanwhile, has filed an application in the court demanding Kharat's custody in another case. As the court granted them the necessary permission, the team will take the accused's custody from the Nashik Road Central Jail.
Kharat will be produced in court again in the fourth case on Tuesday.
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