The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Delhi High Court’s order granting bail to Preeti Chandra, wife of former Unitech promoter and Chairman Sanjay Chandra, on a plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the High Court order granting her bail.
Staying the operation of the High Court order of bail to Preeti Chandra, a vacation bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Rajesh Bindal issued her (Preeti Chandra) notice on the ED’s plea against the High Court order.
The High Court while granting bail to Preeti Chandra on Wednesday (June 14) had put in abeyance its order on the request of the ED so that it can approach the top court.
Issuing notice to Preeti Chandra, the vacation bench said, “Till further orders, operation of the impugned order dated 14th June, 2023 shall remain stayed.”
However, the vacation bench permitted Preeti Chandra to apply for temporary bail on health grounds. The bench said, “As and when such an application (for temporary bail on health grounds) is moved, the same shall be considered in accordance with law.”
Giving Preeti two weeks to respond to the ED’s petition against the High Court order granting her bail, the vacation bench gave ED two weeks to file its rejoinder and directed the listing of the matter after four weeks.
Earlier, Preeti Chandra was denied bail by the trial court in November 2022.
The ED had arrested the founder of Unitech group Ramesh Chandra, Preeti Chandra and Rajesh Malik of Carnoustie Group last year as they collected funds from home buyers for housing projects. However, the ED has said that the funds were not used for executing the housing projects.