Jan.30, 2010, 09:10pm IST

The Jharkhand High Court on Saturday reserved its order on the criminal writ petition filed by businessman Manoj Punamiya of Mumbai for quashing of the non-bailable warrant (NBW) of arrest issued against him.

Punamiya, a close associate of former chief minister Madhu Koda, is an accused in the multi-billion money laundering case in which Koda and others are also accused. In his writ petition, Punamiya demanded quashing of the NBW issued by the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in connection with the case.

The petition was taken up for hearing by the single Bench, comprising Justice R R Prasad. Appearing for Punamiya, advocate BP Pandey argued that when the FIR was lodged in the money laundering case, his name did not figure in the list of accused that included Koda and eight others.

Pandey further stated that the special PMLA court had issued the NBW against him at ED's insistence and that is not valid as he was not named accused in the case. He even said that Punamiya had cooperated with investigating agencies like income tax and ED and have even met the officials whenever summoned.

ED's counsel Amit Das said the warrant of arrest was sought only after Punamiya failed to appear before the officials for interrogation.

The directorate has registered a case for money laundering against nine people, including Koda and three former ministers, for misusing public money while in office under the prevention of corruption Act and sub-section 1(b) of PMLA.

The special PMLA court had issued non-bailable warrants against Manoj Punamiya, Sanjay Choudhary, Binod Sinha and two others on December 18, last year.