New Delhi: A city court Wednesday acquitted controversial godman Chandraswami in a nine-year-old Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) violation case.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rajender Kumar Shastri acquitted Nemi Chand alias Chandraswami in the case.

The case was lodged against Chandraswami in 1999 as he allegedly refused to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigators and respond to the allegations of financial irregularities against him.

The court's order has come as a major relief for Chandraswai, who had earlier approached the Delhi High Court seeking permission to go abroad.

However, the ED opposed his plea in the court on grounds that he might not come back as he owed over Rs.90 million in penalty imposed on him in 11 FERA violation cases.

On Jan 31, the high court dismissed ED's plea and allowed Chandraswami to travel abroad.

A bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, while allowing Chandraswami to visit Britain, UAE and Mauritius for a period of one month, raised the security amount to Rs.1 million per case.

He has already been acquitted in the St. Kitts case that sought to show that former prime minister V.P. Singh had stashed away wealth in a bank in the tiny Caribbean island by allegedly forging the signature of his son Ajeya Singh.

 

Source : ians