In a recent appeal to the Supreme Court, Senior Advocate Harish Salve expressed concern over the extensive powers granted to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in investigating money laundering cases. Salve, representing the directors of realty group M3M, Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal, argued that these powers pose a threat to individual liberty and need to be curtailed.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Salve’s plea to the Supreme Court comes in the wake of the arrest of the Bansal brothers in a money laundering investigation related to a bribery case against a former judge. The brothers were taken into custody on June 14, despite their cooperation with the investigation, a move Salve contends was a violation of their rights.
Salve told a bench of Justices AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh. He further warned,
“See how the arrest was done. They were cooperating. The arrest was in violation of my rights… These powers need to be reined in,” These are drastic powers given to the ED. If the court does not rein them in, no one is safe in this country.”
The Bansal brothers were arrested following a First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Haryana Police’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) against former Special Judge CBI/ED, Sudhir Parmar. The ED claimed that it had received information that Parmar was showing favoritism to the accused in a money laundering case concerning real estate firm, IREO. Following the registration of the case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court suspended Parmar.
The Supreme Court, in its order, noted that the Bansal brothers would now be moving the Punjab and Haryana High Court for anticipatory bail. Their petitions were disposed of in light of this development. The hearing in the agency’s petitions before the top court was deferred by two weeks.
Salve’s appeal for the Supreme Court’s intervention in curbing the ED’s powers is significant, given the ongoing debate about the balance between law enforcement’s need to investigate financial crimes and the protection of individual rights. The case continues to unfold, with the legal fraternity, politicians, and businessmen closely watching the outcome.