The Enforcement Directorate has recently lodged a case of money laundering in connection with the alleged suicide of Sushant Singh Rajput. The case was filed after the Bihar Police registered an FIR against the deceased actor’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty. Some individuals, quite clearly, are not happy with the development.
NDTV ‘Journalist’ Arvind Gunasekar claimed that the Enforcement Director was going against its own internal guidelines by registering a case of money laundering in a matter involving two private parties. “The agency usually take cognisance only when ‘public money’ is involved,” he claimed. In his endeavour, he was joined by fellow NDTV ‘journalist’ Gargi Rawat.
Gargi Rawat claimed that “Rules don’t matter anymore when someone needs to be harassed,” implying that the Enforcement Directorate was violating its internal guidelines in order to harass Rhea Chakraborty. However, contrary to the claims made, it is perfectly within the jurisdiction of the agency to investigate matters between private parties.
A cursory glance at their website reveals that core functions of the ED include investigations as per the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) and Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). Thus, quite clearly, the ED is completely within its rights to probe the money laundering angle in the Sushant Singh Rajput case.
Thus, quite clearly, NDTV journalists are peddling misinformation regarding the functions of the Enforcement Directorate.
Enforcement Directorate registers case of money laundering
The development comes a few hours after former Maharashtra CM, Devendra Fadnavis, urged ED to register an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) case after the ‘misappropriation and money angle’ had come to the fore. “Now a money laundering aspect too has come to the fore. It has been observed that money was siphoned off from his account. In such a case, the ED has jurisdiction, so, I have demanded the ED should register an ECIR and probe the matter,” he had said.
Sushant Singh Rajput’s father had filed an FIR alleging that his ex-girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty had stolen Rs 15 crores from the actor. The FIR which was registered against her based on a complaint filed by Rajput’s father KK Singh on Sunday with various sections like 341, 342, 380, 406,420, 306 and 120 (B) of the IPC that include abetment of suicide, alleged that Rhea took money from Sushant.
