Former MLA also gets relief from SC, ED reprimanded

Delhi. The Supreme Court has reprimanded ED, the agency investigating money laundering issues in the country. The Supreme Court has also expressed concern over the methods of interrogation of ED. The Supreme Court has termed it as arrogant and inhuman behavior for questioning a person for about 15 hours even after midnight. A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih has said that it is clear that the agency was actually forcing the person to give a statement and this is a very shocking situation.

During this, the Supreme Court upheld the decision to cancel the arrest of former Haryana Congress MLA Surendra Pawar by ED in the money laundering case related to illegal mining. In July, the ED arrested Pawar at 1.40 am after questioning him for about 15 hours. However, in September, the Punjab and Haryana High Court canceled his arrest. After this, the agency had approached the Supreme Court against this order.

Media reports said that while giving clarification on behalf of ED, lawyer Zoheb Hussain said that the High Court has wrongly recorded in its order that Panwar was interrogated continuously for 14 hours and 40 minutes. According to ED, he was given a dinner break during the interrogation. Zoheb Hussain said that to improve the process, the agency ensures that people are not interrogated early in the morning. Rejecting ED’s argument, the bench asked how can the agency torture a person by interrogating him for such a long time without a break.