- By Vivek Raj
- Wed, 04 Oct 2023 12:13 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
The Supreme Court has delivered a sharp rebuke to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) while cancelling the arrests of Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal, directors of the Gurugram-based realty group M3M, in a money laundering case. The apex court said that the probe agency could not be vindictive and must be seen to act with the highest degree of fairness.
The Bansals had approached the Supreme Court after the Punjab and Haryana High Court had dismissed their plea challenging their arrest. In its judgment, the Supreme Court stated, "Every action of the ED is expected to be transparent, above board and conforming to pristine standards of fair play in action." The court pointed out that in this case, the ED had failed to discharge its functions and exercise its powers properly."
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"ED is not expected to be vindictive in its conduct and must be seen to be acting with utmost probity and with the highest degree of dispassion and fairness," said the bench. They stressed that mere non-cooperation with the ED's summons should not be sufficient grounds for arrest.
The Supreme Court also criticised the ED for not providing the grounds of arrest in written form to the accused. The bench found fault with the ED officer who had only read out the grounds of arrest, stating that it did not meet the constitutional and legal mandates.
The court also held that such conduct would not fulfil the mandate of Article 22(1) of the Constitution and Section 19(1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Consequently, the Supreme Court declared the arrests as illegal and ordered the immediate release of the accused. The bench heavily came down on the ED's approach in this case, highlighting the need for transparency, fairness, and probity in the agency's actions.
The court observed, "This chronology of events speaks volumes and reflects rather poorly, if not negatively, on the ED’s style of functioning".
"Being a premier investigating agency charged with the onerous responsibility of curbing debilitating economic offence of money laundering in our country, every action of the ED in the course of such exercise is expected to be transparent, above board and conforming to the pristine standards of fair play in action. The ED mantled with far-reaching powers under the stringent Act of 2002, is not expected to be vindictive in its conduct and must be seen to be acting with utmost probity and with the highest degree of dispassion and fairness", the judgment read.
The judgment was delivered in response to petitions filed by the Bansals challenging their arrest and the High Court's refusal to examine the validity of their initial detention. The High Court had noted that the petitioners also faced allegations of bribing judicial officers, considering it a serious matter and refusing their release.