Reprieve for Nalini in Saradha chit scam case

Justice TS Sivagnanam, on hearing arguments by senior counsels Vijayanarayan and Krishnamurthy on behalf of Nalini Chidambaram and Additional Solicitor General C Rajagopalan, the counsel for ED, reserved orders after directing the Central agency not to initiate any precipitative action in the meantime. 

Nalini in her plea had contended that the issue of summons was illegal, since as per section 160 of the Code of Civil Procedure, a woman cannot be summoned by the police and instead the inquiry should only be held at her place of residence. 

She had also submitted that the CBI had already filed chargesheet in the Saradha chit fund scam case before a court in West Bengal, and that her name had not figured either as a witness or an accused. But despite this, she was being issued repeated summons, which was unwarranted, she said. 

Senior counsel Vijayanarayan contended that it was unfortunate that an advocate was being targeted merely for appearing for a client and receiving fees. He said a fee of over Rs 1 crore was paid to her for more than 25 appearances in courts and company law board. 

Moreover, the money was paid by Saradha group chairman Sudhipto Sen because it was a clause in an agreement between Sudhipto and former Union Minister Matang Singh’s wife Manoranjana over a television channel purchase deal. Only the latter was Nalini’s client, counsel said. He further submitted that her fee was paid in cheque, and she declared it in her tax returns. Furthermore, all this had transpired well before the Saradha scam case, he said. 

While the additional solicitor general insisted that the ED was within its powers to summon a person, it was argued that Nalini had fully cooperated with the ED. She had furnished all documents and replies to ED queries.

But the fourth summon, with a similar set of questions, indicated that ED was on a harassment path.