It is all coming to a head on Thursday. The Supreme Court will be looking at Fernandez’s challenge to the Delhi order, and in doing so, it will put a finer point on the legal side of one of the country’s most followed financial crime cases. Whatever they decide will set the stage for the rest of the proceedings.
What the Supreme Court will weigh
Fernandez is contesting an order from May 30 by the Delhi trial court that called for charges to be made out against her and the rest of the accused under the PMLA. A bench of Justices PK Mishra and AS Chandurkar has the matter down for hearing after it was put before them in an urgent mention on Tuesday.
‘I have come up against the framing of charge in the ED case,’ said her lawyer, Rameeza Hakim. ‘This is a curious one: I am a prosecution witness in the scheduled offence but an accused in the PMLA.’ The bench has put it off until the day after tomorrow.
Why the challenge matters now
With the Delhi court having already put the trial in motion, a look from the top court could put some fine lines on the procedure and put a speed to the case.
She has made the call to go straight to the Supreme Court rather than the Delhi High Court first. In a case with this much of a spotlight, you can read that as the defence making a point about how time is of the essence.
Here is what is on the line when the appeal comes up on Thursday:
– The court’s take on the May 30 ruling
– Where she stands as an accused in PMLA but a witness in the main offence
– How fast the trial is to be run
How the trial moved forward
Back on May 30, Additional Sessions Judge Prashant Sharma found that the Enforcement Directorate had put enough on the table to make a prima facie case against Fernandez and co. He ordered charges to be framed under Section 3 of the PMLA, which is covered by the penalties in Section 4.
Then on June 3, the charges were put in writing against Chandrashekhar, Fernandez and the others, and the trial was a go. Now all eyes are on the ED’s story and how the defence plans to counter it.
Approver application and withdrawal
Hakim let the court know on Tuesday that at one point Fernandez had put in for approver status in the ED matter. But once the agency put up some resistance, she pulled the application on April 16.
That little episode shows how the legal ground has been shifting as we’ve got to this point in the trial, and why the charge-framing is such a key issue.
Allegations at the heart of the ED probe
The whole money laundering thing is tied to an alleged extortion ring with Chandrashekhar and the complainant, Aditi Singh. The prosecution says he and his circle used everything from spoofed calls to made-up identities to get Singh and her family to hand over their money.
According to the ED, there is over Rs 200 crore in proceeds of crime to be accounted for, made through cheating and intimidation. They say the money was then hidden and channeled in a way to make it look like it was above board.
What to watch next
On Thursday, the Supreme Court will put the defence to the test on its argument that the charges should not have been framed, considering Fernandez is also a witness for the prosecution in the underlying offence.
If the top court backs or puts a dent in the May 30 order, it will define the way forward for a case that is already in full swing and being watched closely across the country.
