In a significant legal victory for retired IAS officer and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary Mr. M Gopal Reddy, the Supreme Court has dismissed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The petition sought to challenge a 2023 Telangana High Court order that had cleared Mr. Reddy of any involvement in a high-profile money laundering case related to the 2019 e-tendering scam.
The apex court’s decision also brings relief to Mr. M S Raju, a businessman from the Mantena Group, who was similarly implicated in the same case concerning alleged tender manipulation in Madhya Pradesh. “We see no reason to interfere with the High Court’s order,” the Supreme Court said while rejecting the ED’s appeal.
In its 2023 ruling, the Telangana High Court had quashed all proceedings against both Mr. Reddy and Mr. Raju, stating that the ED had failed to produce substantial evidence to sustain a money laundering investigation. The case originated from an FIR lodged by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in Bhopal, which alleged that several individuals and firms had tampered with the state’s e-tendering system—manipulating bids worth over ₹80,000 crore using forged digital signatures. The Mantena Group was among the companies investigated.
Though Mr. Reddy was named in the EOW’s final report, his legal team clarified that he was never directly accused of wrongdoing. Moreover, in November 2022, a Bhopal court acquitted all individuals named in the EOW’s FIR due to lack of evidence—a decision that went unchallenged.
The Telangana High Court had also observed that in the absence of a predicate offence, a money laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) could not be pursued. Justice M. Laxman, in his order quashing proceedings against Mr. Raju, remarked that the ED’s actions bordered on “abuse of process”, emphasizing that mere suspicion does not amount to criminal liability under the PMLA.
The ED’s case further weakened after CERT-In, the government’s cybersecurity agency, concluded that no incriminating evidence could be retrieved from the digital devices seized during the investigation. This led the EOW to file a closure report.
The alleged e-tendering scam, which surfaced in 2019 amid internal disputes within the Madhya Pradesh bureaucracy, had prompted then-Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to order an inquiry. Nine tenders were ultimately cancelled following reports of irregularities.
With the Supreme Court’s latest verdict, Mr. Reddy has been fully exonerated, marking a decisive end to a case that had garnered national attention and scrutiny.
