Supreme Court slams ED ‘high handedness’, ‘inhuman’ 15-hour interrogation | India News

NEW DELHI: Taking note of the “highhandedness” and “inhuman conduct” of the Enforcement Directorate in interrogating a person for nearly 15 hours which extended beyond midnight, the Supreme Court on Thursday pulled up ED and expressed its concern about the agency’s approach in conducting the investigation.
A bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih said the agency was practically forcing a person to make a statement and it was a “shocking situation”. He confirmed the quashing of arrest of former Haryana Congress MP Surender Panwar by ED in a money laundering case related to illegal mining.
ED had arrested Panwar in July at 1:40 am after questioning him for about 15 hours, but his arrest was quashed by the Punjab and Haryana high court in September and the agency moved the high court against the high court order.
Appearing for ED, advocate Zoheb Hossain said the high court had wrongly recorded in its order that Panwar was interrogated for 14 hours and 40 minutes non-stop, adding that he was given a dinner break during the interrogation. Hossain said the agency had already taken steps to expedite the process and ensure that people were not questioned in the wee hours of the morning.
Rejecting ED’s argument, the court asked how the agency could torture a person by interrogating him for such a long period without a break. However, the court made it clear that the observations made by the high court and itself were only on the issue of grant of bail and not on the merits of the case.
In its order, the high court had noted that as per ED’s case, the petitioner was served with notice/summon and “duly reported at the ED zonal office in Gurgaon at 11 am and was constantly interrogated till 1.40 am (July 20) for 14 hours and 40 minutes, which is not heroic on the part of ED but rather goes against the dignity of the human being.”
“For future, in view of the mandate provided under Article 21, this court observes that the ED should take corrective measures and sensitize the officers to observe a reasonable time frame for one-time investigation against suspects in such cases. To be precise, It would be appreciated if some necessary mechanism was established for a fair investigation of the accused according to the basic human rights established by the United Nations, instead of imposing unnecessary harassment for a longer period in a given period for one day. certain”, he stated. the court had said.
Echoing HC’s sentiments, the SC bench said this was “inhuman conduct” on the part of the ED officials. The court said that this was not a case related to terrorist activities but illegal sand mining and that “this is not the way to treat people in such a case.” “A person is being forced to make a statement,” he added.
The court upheld the high court’s order which said Panwar’s initial arrest as well as the grounds for arrest were unsustainable in law and there was no material in the ED to substantiate the politician directly or indirectly surrendering to any process or activity related to the proceeds of crime. .
As a corrective measure, the ED recently issued a circular directing its officials not to question people late at night or make them wait long in their office.