NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday slammed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for keeping accused persons in its custody indefinitely without putting them to trial. “Keeping an accused in custody without the trial is akin to detention, which hampers liberty,” the two-judge bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta remarked.
The bench made strong observations in response to a default bail plea filed by former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren’s alleged associate Prem Prakash. Prakash was arrested by the ED in August 2022. Two AK-47 rifles, 60 live rounds, two magazines and some other incriminating documents were recovered by the probe agency at his residence.
He was charged by the ED for allegedly involving in offences of money laundering and Arms Act. While taking exception to the fact that the ED filed successive supplementary charge sheets in many cases, the apex court asked the Additional Solicitor General SV Raju appearing for the ED, “We are putting you (ED) on notice.
You cannot arrest a person without investigation in the case being complete. A person cannot be put in custody without the commencement of trial. It is akin to detention. This also affects the liberty of an individual.”
The court pointed out that an accused cannot be denied the benefit of default bail. It went on to add that the whole object of default bail is to prevent the ED from making arrests before the completion of the probe. Justice Khanna said the petitioner has been behind bars for 18 months and supplementary chargesheets are being filed one after the other, which is eventually delaying the trial.
Default bail
The court pointed out that an accused cannot be denied the benefit of default bail. It went on to add that the whole object of default bail is to prevent the ED from making arrests before the completion of the probe.