The Supreme Court of India lashed out at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) by dubbing its action as “unpardonable” acts for calling persons at short notice, keeping them awake through the night and then arresting them the next day.
This observation was passed by the apex court while hearing a petition filed by retired IAS officer Anil Tuteja. He was arrested by the ED in connection with the Chhattisgarh liquor case in April this year. Tuteja alleged that he was served two summons within a few minutes and was later picked up, interrogated all through the night and arrested after the day break by the ED. Interestingly, he was arrested within days of the top court quashing the charge sheet filed by ED based on an income tax department probe.
While expressing its strong displeasure, the SC remarked that even terrorists and heinous offenders are not treated in this manner. The court also raised doubts on the arrest and interrogation techniques adopted by the agency.
A bench headed by justice Abhay S Oka said that the way ED carried out its action smacks of a total breach of a citizen’s right to life and liberty enshrined in the Constitution. “This is unpardonable and simply not done,” the judge remarked.
Tuteja had been picked up in a dramatic manner by the ED from the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) office on April 20. While he was at the ACB office, he received the first ED summon at 12:30pm which required him to appear before ED officers at 12 noon. A little later, he got a second summon asking him to appear that same evening.
While he was intrigued at the developments, a posse of ED officers took him straight from the ACB office, interrogated him through the night and arrested him after daybreak on April 21.
The top court lamentably noted that it does not happen even with terrorists and serious offenders under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
