Jaipur: A special CBI court hearing cases pertaining to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Wednesday granted the Enforcement Directorate (ED) custodial remand of former Behror MLA Baljit Yadav till Feb 7. Yadav was arrested by the ED Tuesday from Shahjahanpur in Alwar and produced before the court amid tight security, reports Ashish Mehta.The case pertains to alleged irregularities involving nearly Rs 3.7 crore of MLA Local Area Development (LAD) funds during 2021–22 in the procurement of badminton and cricket equipment for 32 govt schools in Behror constituency. The ED had registered the PMLA case on the basis of an FIR lodged by the Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).Opposing ED’s plea for custodial remand, counsel for Yadav, Kapil Prakash Gupta, argued, “The arrest itself was illegal. The high court has already granted a stay in the case registered by the ACB against him… therefore, proceedings under PMLA cannot legally continue”.Gupta further submitted that no “reasonable grounds” were disclosed by the ED for Yadav’s arrest, as mandated by law. “In the absence of such material particulars, the arrest is illegal and custodial interrogation unwarranted,” Gupta said.Yadav’s defence also maintained that the FIR was “politically motivated and unsustainable”, and that all works under Yadav’s LAD scheme were executed through official channels and with due approvals.Countering defence submissions, Ajadshatru Meena, appearing for ED, told the court that custodial interrogation was essential for the investigation. “The witness statements recorded by the agency indicate that certain firms were allegedly constituted in the names of Yadav’s family members and were subsequently awarded tenders for the purchase and supply of sports equipment under the LAD scheme. We need to confront the accused before these witnesses,” Meena said.He further argued that remand was necessary to trace the money trail, identify the proceeds of crime and ascertain the role of the accused in the formation and operation of the firms.The court will take up the matter for the next hearing on completion of the remand period.During his stint as MLA, Yadav was in the news for a much-publicised sunrise-to-sunset run against corruption in Jaipur’s Central Park, and had even announced a reward of Rs 51,000 to anyone who gave him information on corruption or corrupt practices.
