The Supreme Court termed the attitude of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during the nearly 15-hour interrogation of former Haryana Congress MLA Surendra Panwar as “arbitrary” and “inhumane” and upheld the order declaring the leader’s arrest illegal. kept.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih said this was “inhuman conduct” of ED officials as the case was not related to any terrorist activity but alleged illegal sand mining.
The bench said, “People should not be treated like this in a case like this.” You have virtually forced a person to give a statement.”
“We are not inclined to interfere with the finding of the High Court that the arrest of the respondent was illegal,” the bench said while dismissing the Enforcement Directorate’s plea against the high court order.
She said the High Court’s findings were only to decide whether Panwar’s arrest was illegal or not.
“These findings will not affect the merits of the pending complaint under Section 44 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002,” the bench said in its order on December 2.
The court said the ED’s approach in the investigation was “shocking” wherein a person was virtually forced to give a statement.
ED lawyer Zoheb Hussain said the High Court had wrongly concluded that Panwar was interrogated continuously for 14 hours and 40 minutes. He pointed to the dinner ‘break’ during questioning.
The lawyer said that the ED, in a 2024 circular, had asked its officers to maintain certain standards of interrogation and ensure that people are not interrogated late at night and early in the morning.
The high court had on September 29, 2024, said that as per the grounds of arrest, the charges against the petitioner primarily relate to illegal mining or supply of illegally mined material.
The High Court had said, “Illegal mining is undoubtedly an offense under Section 21 of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act), but neither ‘illegal mining’ nor the MMDR Act comes under the ambit of PMLA (Money Laundering). Prevention Act) has been included in the schedule attached herewith. In other words, illegal mining is not a scheduled offense under PMLA. Therefore, prima facie, the petitioner cannot be prosecuted on this ground.
