The bench said it was inclined to interfere with the high court’s findings that the arrest was illegal. The Supreme Court on Thursday called out the Enforcement Directorate’s “high-handedness” and “inhuman conduct” for interrogating former Haryana Congress MLA Surender Panwar for nearly 15 hours last year. The court also upheld a high court order calling his arrest “illegal”.
A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih observed that ED carried out “inhuman conduct” as the case was not linked to some terror activity but alleged illegal sand mining. “This is not the way to treat people in such a case. You have virtually forced a person to make a statement,” the bench. The Supreme Court bench said it was inclined to interfere with the high court’s findings that the arrest was illegal. The court, however, clarified that these findings would not affect the merits of the pending complaint under Section 44 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). ED’s counsel Zoheb Hussain said the high court had erred in observing that Panwar was continuously quizzed for 14.40 hours, pointing to a dinner break during the interrogation.
On September 29, 2024, the high court said primarily, as per the grounds of arrest, the allegation(s) against the petitioner pertained to illegal mining or supplying the illegally mined material. “Of course, ‘illegal mining’ is an offence under Section 21 of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act), but neither ‘illegal mining’ nor the MMDR Act has been included under the schedule attached with the PMLA. In other words, ‘illegal mining’ is not a scheduled offence under the PMLA. Hence, prima facie, petitioner cannot be prosecuted on that count,” said the high court.
It noted the ED itself said Panwar was issued a summons under Section 50 of the PMLA and appeared before the agency at around 11 am in Gurugram on July 19, 2024, and was constantly interrogated till 1:40 am (July 20, 2024) for 14 hours and 40 minutes. The high court had said that the interrogation wasn’t heroic and it was against the dignity of a human being. “For future, given the mandate under Article 21 of the Constitution, this court is observing that Directorate of Enforcement shall take remedial measures and sensitise the officers to follow some reasonable time limit for investigation in one go against the suspect(s) in such cases,” it said.
Instead of subjecting someone to “unnecessary harassment” for such a long duration, the high court called for a necessary mechanism to carry out a fair investigation of the accused in line with the basic human rights laid down by the United Nations.
What was the case about?
The 55-year-old Congress leader was produced before a special PMLA court in Ambala which sent him to ED custody. The money-laundering case stems from several FIRs registered by the Haryana Police for probing alleged illegal mining of boulders, gravel and sand that took place in the past in Yamunanagar and nearby districts.
