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SC should rein in ED’s powers: Salve to Court
Salve was appearing before a bench of justices AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh to defend his clients in a petition filed by Enforcement Directorate. The ED had approached the top court against an order passed by the Delhi high court on June 12 granting anticipatory bail to Pankaj Bansal and another
The Supreme Court must rein in the Enforcement Directorate given the drastic powers it has to throw people in jail, said senior advocate Harish Salve while arguing for the directors of reality firm M3M who were arrested for alleged money laundering charges last month.
Appearing for the two brothers – Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal of Gurugram-based M3M Group who are in ED custody, Salve referred to the brazen manner in which the ED officers called the brothers for questioning and at the end of it, served them summons. As the brothers refused to accept the summons and insisted on being served properly, the ED officials arrested them and accused them for “willfully declining” to accept summons.
Noting the disturbing facts of the case, Salve said, “When these things happen, we have to be careful. These are drastic powers given to ED and if this is not reined in, there are drastic consequences for citizens.”
Salve was appearing before a bench of justices AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh to defend his clients in a petition filed by Enforcement Directorate. The ED had approached the top court against an order passed by the Delhi high court on June 12 granting anticipatory bail to Pankaj Bansal and another.
The ED had linked the two brothers with a corruption case against a former special judge in Haryana who was accused of favouring M3M group directors and another real estate firm IREO in the cases filed by ED and central bureau of investigation (CBI) before the judge. The special judg, Sudhir Parmar, was suspended on April 27.
In a statement issued by ED after conducting raids at M3M premises on June 1, it was alleged that M3M group allegedly received about ₹400 crore from the IREO group through several shell companies in multiple layers. This money was siphoned off by the M3M group, the ED statement alleged.
Salve pointed out that the FIR does not name Pankaj as it was against Roop Bansal, another director with the firm. “These are very strong powers available to ED (under the prevention of money laundering act) that is being used to throw people in jail,” Salve added. He was assisted by senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Maninder Singh.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court had on July 27 last year upheld the draconian provisions of PMLA relating to powers of arrest, seizure, summoning of witnesses and stringent bail conditions. In August, the Supreme Court admitted a review petition against the same judgment. Later, a separate bench of the top court entertained petitions questioning validity of two specific provisions of PMLA – Section 50 that relates to ED’s power to summon witnesses and record evidence and Section 63 prescribing punishment for giving false statement to ED. These matters are expected to come up for hearing on July 18.
