Supreme Court of India
Credit: PTI
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday deplored the mode and manner of arrest of former IAS officer Anil Tuteja by the Enforcement Directorate in the Chhattisgarh liquor scam, saying the facts were "glaring" and brought forth a "disturbing feature".
Examining his plea for bail, a bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih noted Tuteja, on April 20, 2024, at around 4:30 pm was sitting in the ACB office at Raipur.
Firstly, he was served a summons directing him to appear before ED at 12 am. Thereafter, another summon was served while he was in the office of ACB calling upon him to appear before ED at 5.30 pm. Thereafter, he was taken to the office of ED in a van brought by the ED and was interrogated throughout the night and arrested at 4 am, the bench pointed out.
The court, however, allowed the senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and other counsel, representing Tuteja, to withdraw his appeal, by granting him liberty to approach the trial court for bail.
Upon the court's observations, Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, representing the ED, contended before the court that the agency had to take remedial measures to ensure such incidents were avoided. He said there was a press release to this effect issued on October 29, 2024.
Singhvi said the court earlier quashed the money laundering case registered by the ED on April 8, 2024. Three days later, the ED registered a new ECIR (complaint) based on the same set of facts and material.
On this, the bench asked if the ED could rely on the same material from the first ECIR, which was quashed.
The bench also said the quashing of the first ECIR was based on the absence of a predicate offence.
The ED's counsel argued that during the investigation into the second complaint, all relevant documents, including statements recorded under Section 50 of the PMLA, 2002, were obtained from the investigating officer of the first ECIR, and all these could form the basis of further proceedings.
The bench said it wanted to see if the arrest was illegal.
The bench asked Tuteja's counsel, whether they want a detailed finding on the issue, saying that it might have a bearing on the bail, if reasoning were to be recorded.
The petitioner's counsel requested the bench to allow them to withdraw the petition with a liberty to apply for bail in the matter.
The apex court had on December 5, had expressed its displeasure over the ED hastening to arrest Tuteja in the case. ''It is deplorable. How can you arrest a person in the middle of the night? What is this happening, was it so urgent? You could have called him the next day. He was not some terrorist who would go in with bombs," the bench had then said.
The ED claimed Tuteja was an integral part of illegal profits worth Rs 2,000 crore earned by a syndicate involving politicians, bureaucrats and private individuals during the period 2019-23.