SC pulls up Enforcement Directorate for ‘inhuman conduct’
The Supreme Court has upheld a Punjab and Haryana High Court order quashing the arrest of former Haryana Congress MLA Surender Panwar in a money laundering case linked to alleged illegal mining and pulled up the Enforcement Directorate for "high-handedness" and "inhuman conduct" in interrogating him for 15 hours.
“In the facts of the case peculiar to the respondent, we are not inclined to interfere with the finding of the High Court that the arrest of the respondent was illegal. The findings which are rendered by the High Court are only for the purposes of deciding the issue whether the arrest of the respondent was illegal,” a Bench of Justices AS Oka and AG Masih said in an order on Thursday.
The Bench, however, clarified that these findings would not affect the merits of the pending complaint under Section 44 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
"This is not the way to treat people in such a case. You (ED) have virtually forced a person to make a statement," the Bench said about Panwar, who was arrested in July last year at 1.40 am after interrogating him for almost 15 hours.
The Bench was not convinced with the ED counsel’s submission that the high court had erred in observing that Panwar was continuously questioned for 14.40 hours and that there was a dinner break during the interrogation.
Noting that "illegal mining" was an offence under Section 21 of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act), the HC had, in September, pointed out that neither "illegal mining" nor the MMDR Act was included under the schedule attached with the PMLA. Holding that "illegal mining" was not a "scheduled offence" under the PMLA, it had said that prima facie, Panwar could not be prosecuted by the ED.
