Chhattisgarh liquor scam: Accused Nitesh Purohit withdraws petition

Nitesh Purohit on Wednesday withdrew his petition relating to the Chhattisgarh liquor scam from the Supreme Court.
A bench of justices Bela M Trivedi and Prashant Kumar Mishra granted permission to Purohit to withdraw his petition. ED arrested Nitesh Purohit on May 11 in the matter and now he is under judicial custody.
Meanwhile, the bench listed the plea by Amit Singh, who claimed that he has faced custodial torture, in the second week of August.
The top court observed on Tuesday, “These days there is a trend going on that various petitions filed before the top court challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions of PMLA which has been decided finally, then seek consequential relief and bypassing other forums which are open to petitioners.”
The observation had come on Tuesday when various petitioners sought to withdraw petitions challenging money laundering cases relating to the Chhattisgarh liquor scam and certain provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The top court had said despite the Vijay Madanlal judgment passed by the Supreme Court last year, there is a trend prevailing in writ petitions filed before this court under Article 32 challenging the Constitutional validity of certain provisions of PMLA which has been decided finally and then seek consequential relief. The top court had remarked that these reliefs are bypassing other forums which are open to petitioners.
Various petitions challenging money laundering cases relating to the Chhattisgarh liquor scam and certain provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act were withdrawn from Supreme Court on Tuesday. The court however had granted liberty to petitioners to seek remedies available as per law in other appropriate forums.
Chattisgarh’s Excise official Niranjan Das and various others including Karishma Dhebar, Anwar Dhebar and Pinki Singh had approached Supreme Court. They had challenged certain provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The petitioner had also sought quashing of the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) in liquor irregularities matter in Chhattisgarh.