The strong observations made by the Supreme Court on jail without trial are very relevant at a time when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is very active all over the country. A division bench of the court criticised the ED’s practice of filing supplementary chargesheets to prevent persons charged under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, from getting bail. The court made the remarks in the case of Prem Prakash, an associate of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who was arrested in 2022 in a money laundering case linked to alleged illegal mining but is still in jail because the investigating agency kept filing supplementary chargesheets. The court said that by filing multiple chargesheets, the ED not only violated the right of the accused to default bail but also prolonged the legal process. The court underlined the need for completing the investigation before arresting an accused, particularly in cases that attract provisions of a stringent law like the PMLA.