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Nagpur: Expressing concern over being summoned by ED, the whistle blower of the Betel Nut smuggling has moved to the Nagpur High Court and 2 Senior Judges recused to hear the matter and now it is most likely that the third Division Bench would be hearing the matter today.
The veteran Homeopath Dr. Mehboob Chimthanawala had filed a Public Interest Litigation in 2016 unearthing the multi-crore betel nut smuggling.
Acting on the said P.I.L., the Nagpur High Court took serious note of the ongoing state of affairs and several strict orders and directions came to be passed. After taking away the probe from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence [D.R.I.], the Nagpur HC has directed the C.B.I. to register F.I.R. against the persons involved in Betel Nut Smuggling and resultantly, the C.B.I. register offence against several persons including some government officials from DRI, Customs department, etc.
Gold Rate
Thursday 09 Jan. 2025
On the strict directions of the Nagpur HC, the C.B.I. has also filed a report in respect of the investigation done so far, which is lying before the Court in a sealed envelope.
Last month, it seems that the said investigation was either taken over by the Enforcement Directorate [ED] or it has started a parallel investigation and ED has carried out several raids in Nagpur and Mumbai. ED has also seized unaccounted Betel Nuts worth Crores.
Now, the ED has summoned the veteran Homeopath Dr. Chimthanawala to Mumbai for seeking information. The ED wants Dr. Chimthanawala to disclose information about the betel nut trader, transporters and godowns of the smugglers.
Expressing concern over being summoned by ED, Dr. Chimthanawala has now knocked the doors of Nagpur HC stating that the entire information that he has gathered as a researcher has been submitted to the Court and now it is the duty of the agencies to investigate and find out the real culprits behind the whole scam and it is not possible for the Homeopath to go everywhere and dig out the latest information.
Interestingly, 2 Senior Judges of the Nagpur HC, Justice A.S. Chandurkar and Justice Rohit Deo have recused themselves from the matter in the last 2 days and now it is most likely that the matter would be heard by the third Division Bench today, i.e., 05/01/2023.
Adv. Raspal Singh Renu assisted by Adv. Satpal S. Renu & Adv. Rajenderpal S. Renu is appearing for the veteran Homeopath.
