SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, March 27: The probe is still ongoing eight years after the Jharkhand High Court ordered the income tax department as well as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to investigate the disproportionate assets BJP MLA Dhulu Mahto acquired while hearing a PIL.
Mahto is a history-sheeter
Mahto, known as a coal belt don, has been nominated by the BJP to contest the Lok Sabha election in Dhanbad. Mahto, a notorious law-breaker, is currently facing 33 criminal cases, including extortion, land grab, and assaulting government officials.
HC order to make SBI a party
According to information available in the public domain, the Jharkhand High Court asked the petitioner to make Patna-based SBI a defendant on October 15, 2022. The court also directed SBI to file its reply by November 11, 2022.
The court took action after the Income Tax Department told it that information about Dhulu Mahto’s property needed to be provided by Patna-based SBI.
Somnath Chatterjee filed PIL in 2011
Notably, in 2011 social activist cum senior lawyer of Dhanbad court advocate Somnath Chatterjee filed a PIL in the High Court seeking a probe into the disproportionate assets of Baghmara MLA Dhulu Mahto. He claimed that Dhulu Mahto possessed around Rs 1700 crores in disproportionate ways.
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At that time, Dhulu Mahto was the Jharkhand Vikash Morcha (JVM) MLA, then part of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre.
In 2014, Dhulu Mahto joined the BJP and retained his Baghmara seat in the assembly election. The BJP also came to power at the centre.
On March 30, 2016, the High Court bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Amitabh K Gupta directed the Income Tax (IT) department and the ED to probe Dhulu Mahto’s assets.
When the IT department and the ED did not act on the High Court directive for two years, advocate Somnath Chatterjee reached Delhi to file an SLP in the Supreme Court and approached lawyer Prashant Bhushan.
Since Somnath Chatterjee approached the Supreme Court for an SLP after a two-year order, his time to file an SLP had run out. Prashant Bhushan told him that an SLP could be filed within 30 days of the order, so his time had run out.
However, on the advice of Prashant Bhushan, advocate Somnath Chatterjee returned to Ranchi and filed a Civil Miscellaneous Petition (CMP) in the High Court to reopen the case.
“I have full faith in the judiciary,” he said.
MLA tried to trap a lawyer in rape case
Chatterjee alleged that for coercing him, the Baghmara MLA in 2013 got a rape case against him under Section 376 in Jogta police station on September 2, 2013. However, the court dismissed the case in 2016. “In 2018, he again tried to trap him in a false rape case but failed,” he said.
The Social activist said if the IT department and the ED conduct the probe properly, property worth Rs 30,000 crore will be unearthed,” he asserted.