New Delhi: The Supreme Court has given a big verdict on the petitions challenging the process of arrest, seizure, and investigation conducted by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The Supreme Court has said that the arrest of an accused under this Act is not wrong. That is, the ED can arrest anyone if needed in the investigation process. The Supreme Court said that it is sufficient if the Enforcement Directorate (ED) discloses its grounds at the time of the arrest.
The Supreme Court says that the Case Information Report (ECIR) cannot be clubbed with the FIR and the ECIR is an internal document of the Enforcement Directorate. The Supreme Court says that it is not mandatory to give ECIR to the accused and it is enough to disclose the reasons during the arrest.
The Supreme Court today delivered its verdict on about 242 appeals from Congress leader Karti Chidambaram, NCP leader Anil Deshmukh and others. The provisions of the Money Laundering Act were challenged in all the petitions. A bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, and Justice CT Ravi Kumar gave this verdict.
In this case, several senior lawyers including Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, and Mukul Rohatgi presented their stand in the Supreme Court on various aspects related to the possible misuse of amendments in PMLA.
