Lucknow. The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court rejected the bail plea of MLA from Mau assembly seat Abbas Ansari in a money laundering case. ED had registered a case against Abbas Ansari. The court said in its order that prima facie the nexus of money transactions is proved and under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the court is not satisfied that the accused is innocent in this case. A single bench of Justice Jaspreet Singh passed this order rejecting Abbas’s application.
It is alleged that a company named ‘M/s Vikas Construction’ is directly involved in money laundering, which took over the land and constructed warehouses and earned more than Rs 15 crore by renting those warehouses to FCI. The company is also accused of receiving subsidy of Rs 2.25 crore from NABARD. The majority stake in the construction company is owned by the accused’s mother Afshan Ansari and Vikas Construction is directly related to ‘M/s Aagaaz’, which is the company of the accused’s maternal grandfather.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Abbas Ansari, argued that even if both the companies are involved in money laundering, the accused has no direct connection with it. While opposing the bail, ED argued that money was coming into the accounts of Abbas Ansari from the accounts of the above two firms and he used this money for his personal expenses, which included traveling abroad and purchasing weapons for sport rifle shooting. Import included. ED argued that the accused did not initially cooperate in the investigation until a lookout notice was issued against him.
FIRST PUBLISHED: May 10, 2024, 01:07 IST