ED can investigate charges against Amar Singh: HC

The Allahabad High Court on Friday held the Enforcement Directorate could launch an investigation into a criminal case filed against former Samajwadi Party secretary general Amar Singh whenever the agency felt the same was required.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Vinod Prasad and Justice Rajesh Chandra said this on a writ petition of Kanpur resident Shivkant Tripathi who had last year lodged an FIR against the former SP leader at Babupurwa police station in that city.

The FIR had accused Singh of financial irregularities in his capacity as Chairman of the UP Development Council while Samajwadi Party was in power in the state. Singh has denied the charges.

Tripathi had moved the court with the plea that directions be issued to Enforcement Directorate (ED) to take up the investigation which was at present being carried out by the Economic Offences Wing of Uttar Pradesh government.

The court refrained from issuing such a direction though it said ED "could investigate the matter whenever it thought there was such a requirement".

The court had on December 5 last year, while staying the arrest of Singh in connection with the FIR, made it clear that the Rajya Sabha MP should not be arrested on charges levelled under the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act, though the state government was "free to approach central government for getting the charges levelled under Prevention of Money Laundering Act investigated by an appropriate agency which may take appropriate action in the course of the trial".

Meanwhile, the court has fixed May 10 as the next date of hearing and asked the state government to submit its progress report regarding investigation into the FIR.