‘You are not above law’: Delhi court slams ED high-handedness

PTI

New Delhi, May 1

A Delhi court has pulled up the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for using the stringent PMLA law to record the statements of doctors treating an accused in a money laundering case, observing that history teaches that strong leaders, laws and agencies generally come back to bite the very citizens they vow to protect.

“As an agency answerable to the law and the courts, the ED cannot arrogate powers unto itself. While a government agency too is expected to be a votary of civil rights, the court will certainly not remain amiss in highlighting and rejecting an entirely high-handed act of the ED,” the judge said.

Learn lessons from history

If there are any lessons to be learnt from history, it would be observed that strong leaders, laws and agencies generally come back to bite the very citizens they vow to protect. —Delhi court

Special Judge Vishal Gogne made the observation while deciding an application moved by Amit Katyal, seeking extension of his interim bail granted on February 5 on medical grounds in a money laundering case linked to the land-for-jobs scam.

The judge declined the extension of the interim bail on April 30, noting that Katyal was “manifestly on the road to recovery and can follow the prescribed lifestyle within jail premises”. However, the judge noted that the objection raised by senior advocate Vikas Pahwa, appearing for Katyal, to the use of Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the ED in recording the statements of doctors whom the accused was consulting at Apollo Hospital, Delhi, and Medanta Hospital, Gurugram, after getting interim bail.

The judge said there was absolutely no justification for the ED to subject an ordinary citizen to the “stringent process of Section 50” without an iota of allegation of nexus of the doctors with the accused.

“If there are any lessons to be learnt from history, it would be observed that strong leaders, laws and agencies generally come back to bite the very citizens they vow to protect. After the masculinity of the law has been expressed against the stated targets, such laws are invariably alleged to have been employed against average citizens. The use of Section 50 by the Enforcement Directorate against the law abiding doctors of private hospitals is a contemporary contribution to this perception,” the judge said.

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