DJB money laundering case: Court rejects plea of accused to turn approver

New Delhi, Aug 24 (PTI) A court here has dismissed a plea by chartered accountant Tejinder Pal Singh to turn approver in a money-laundering probe linked to alleged irregularities in the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), saying it has to ensure that a guilty person does not escape punishment by becoming an approver.

Singh is among the accused named in the Enforcement Directorate's final report on the matter. The agency has also named DJB Chief Engineer Jagdish Kumar Arora, contractor Anil Kumar Agarwal, former NBCC general manager D K Mittal and NKG Infrastructure Limited as accused.

In an order passed on Friday, special judge Bhupinder Singh said the ED's reply did not mention any necessity of Singh's testimony to successfully prosecute the accused.

"The applicant (Singh) might be willing to disclose everything truthfully, but does the prosecution need it," the court asked.

"Not any accused who is willing to disclose can be given a pardon. The court has also to see that the guilty person does not escape punishment just for the reason that he chose to become an approver. The proposed testimony of the applicant as an approver can at best be taken as an icing on the cake but the icing cannot be taken at a cost comparable with that of the whole cake," it added.

The court also noted that Singh did not want to turn approver during the probe.

"Now, he just cannot be let off by giving pardon just because his consciousness suddenly pricked him and did not bother him all the while during the period in which the alleged offences were committed, which ranged in years, that too in a well-planned and calculated manner by him along with other co-accused persons," it said.

The nearly 8,000-page prosecution complaint, which includes 140 operational pages apart from annexures, was filed by the federal agency before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Delhi on March 28. PTI MNR IJT