In a victory for actress Shilpa Shetty and her husband, businessman Raj Kundra, the Bombay High Court on Thursday ordered the Enforcement Directorate not to enforce its eviction notices temporarily attached to their properties in Bitcoin scam cases until the authority decides their appeal.
The properties for which eviction notices were issued by the central agency include the couple’s residence in Mumbai’s Juhu area and a farmhouse near Pawna dam in Pune district.
A bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Prithviraj K Chavan said if the appellate authority’s decision is adverse or unfavorable to them, the duo should be given two weeks to seek further relief.
This happened after the ED told the court that the eviction notices will not be effective until the couple files an application for the cancellation of the notices before the court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The couple wanted to stay when the notices were posted on September 27 pending the hearing of their appeals.
The ED had temporarily attached immovable and movable properties worth around Rs 90 crore belonging to Kundra in April this year under the Prohibition of Compensation Act in connection with the Bitcoin investment fraud case, where the accused allegedly collected around Rs 6,600 crore in Bitcoins in 2017. to people after giving them false promises of 10 percent monthly returns on cryptocurrency.
ED has issued eviction notices on the basis of a number of CHARGES registered by Maharashtra police and Delhi police against Variable Tech Pvt Ltd, (late) Amit Bhardwaj, Ajay Bharwaj, Vivek Bharwaj, Simpy Bhardwaj, Mahender Bhardwaj , and several sales agents.
In their application, the couple described as “completely unwanted” ED notices asking them to leave their residence within 10 days. They stated that they have taken steps to oppose the order confirming the temporary attachment of 27 April.
The couple also argued that asking them to leave without the appeal being dismissed would amount to “a miscarriage of justice” and that there was no need to rush out of the estate.
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