PTI, NEW DELHI: A Delhi Court Friday pulled up the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for alleged leak of a supplementary charge sheet in AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case to the media, saying the denial given by the agency did not inspire any confidence and was not worthy of reliance.
Special Judge Arvind Kumar further directed ED’s Director to ensure that no such incident like the leak of the documents is repeated in future in any matter.
The court was hearing a plea by Christian Michel, alleged middleman arrested in the case, seeking an enquiry into the leak in the money laundering case.
Michel had accused ED of politicising the case by passing the documents to the media.
The ED had refuted the allegations of handing over the documents to the journalists and had filed a status report claiming there was no leakage of the charge sheet on its part and “most likely” the leak to the media was caused from an extra copy that was left with the court staff.
The court staff had denied receiving any extra copy from the ED.
In the order, the judge said the status report was “not worthy of reliance” as he noted that there was no direction from the court to the ED to file any additional copy, neither did the agency mention earlier that it had submitted an extra copy.
“Even if the version of ED is believed, it was totally uncalled for and negligent on the ED official to leave a copy with the Ahlmad (court staff).
“The allegations made by the ED, on face of it, appears incorrect. The version of the ED is not inspiring any confidence and is not worthy of reliance,” the court said.
The court refused to go into the issue regarding the media getting the access of the supplementary of the charge sheet and whether giving it to the scribes was a deliberate act or a result of negligence or carelessness.
