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Being treated like a criminal by ED, Sanjeev Arora tells HC
Punjab minister Sanjeev Arora claims he's being treated like a criminal by the ED, challenging his arrest and alleging political vendetta.
Punjab cabinet minister Sanjeev Arora on Thursday alleged before the high court that despite being a minister and a businessman of repute, he is being treated like a “criminal” by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
“I am a minister. The transactions are of 2023-24, when I was nothing but a businessman. I’m not a person from across the border or into any illegal trade. Can I run away?” Arora’s counsel, senior advocate Puneet Bali told the high court bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sanjiv Berry during the resumed hearing of a plea filed by him challenging his arrest by the ED on May 9 and remand order passed by a PMLA court the same day.
“The grounds of arrest they have taken are that I was evasive in my answers. Can I keep details of all my transactions in my pocket?” Bali further submitted, asserting that the grounds of arrest were “pre-typed and orchestrated.”
Arora, 62, the promoter and erstwhile chairman of M/S Hampton Sky Realty Limited, formerly known as M/S Ritesh Properties and Industries Limited, was arrested by the ED on May 9. He has sought quashing of the May 9 remand order passed by the Special PMLA court in Gurugram, along with the grounds of arrest and all consequential proceedings arising out of the ED case.
Bali further claimed that the ED itself is considering the time of arrest as 7am, when they entered his Chandigarh house premises to conduct a raid, and he was not allowed to leave thereafter; and that is how they justified before the PMLA court in Gurugram why he was produced at 11 pm that night.
Bali also reiterated the allegations that Arora was formally shown arrested at 4 pm after “pre-typed and orchestrated” grounds of arrest were handed over within barely 35 minutes of recording his statement.
He further alleged that the petition in the high court was filed through the son of the minister, as ED did not even allow lawyers to get a power of attorney signed from him.
Bali asserted that the PMLA court should have ignored the grounds of arrest cited by the ED, as the same were “fictitious” to satisfy the mandatory safeguards under Section 19 of the PMLA. The section deals with the ED’s power of arrest and stipulates some safeguards for the accused.
During the hearing, ED counsel, Zoheb Hossain, objected to arguments being made by Arora’s lawyer and termed facts cited by Arora’s lawyer regarding the timing of arrest, production before the PMLA court “factually incorrect”. The matter will be taken up for further hearing on Friday. ED is yet to respond to the allegations levelled by Arora before the court.
On the last date of hearing, Arora had claimed that it is a case of political vendetta and there was no reason for the ED to have him arrested.
