SC refuses to quash charges against Shahid Balwa, others in 2G money laundering case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to set aside money laundering charges arising out of 2G scam against Swan telecom promoter Shahid Balwa and three others.

However, the court assured them that if the trial court finds them guilty, they could file an appeal with the top court on the same day.

“Liberty is granted to the petitioners to mention the matter before this court for listing on the very day that the trial courts’ judgement is delivered.” said Justice J.S. Khehar.

Anand Grover, counsel for Enforcement Directorate (ED), argued that the top court should not intervene now as the case in the trial court was nearing completion and the charges were framed in 2014.

Tuesday’s court order would extend to the Balwa brothers- Shahid and Asif Usman Balwa, Rajiv B. Agarwal, Vinod Goenka and five companies—Mystical Constructions Pvt. Ltd, Kudegaon Reality Pvt. Ltd, Dynamix Reality, D B Reality Ltd and Eversmile Construction Co. Ltd.

Charges against all of them were framed by a CBI special court.

“We have been given a second chance by the court. It is akin to a situation where we had lost a game but the courts have allowed us to play again and if we lose, we can come back to them for relief,” said Vijay Aggarwal, lawyer for the accused.

Besides Shahid Balwa, three others and five companies moved the apex court on 30 October 2014 seeking an interim stay on the trial in the case registered by the Enforcement Directorate.

It was claimed that the alleged offences under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act, committed during 2007-08 and for which Balwa and others are being tried, were not part of the scheduled offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act till 31 May, 2009 and the penal law could not be applied with retrospective effect.

A special court, in its October 2014 order, had said that there was prima facie evidence that Balwa and others had a role in “parking” illegal gratification of ₹ 200 crore in Kalaignar TV.