Supreme Court: Trend of ED making allegations against accused without evidence

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Monday flagged what it called the Enforcement Directorate making allegations against accused in money laundering cases without backing them with evidence, and said it has witnessed this trend in many cases.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan expressed concern over the investigating agency not substantiating its claims with material to link the accused with proceeds of crime . "This is what we have seen in umpteen number of cases filed by the ED. This is the pattern, just make allegations without reference to anything," the court said. Additional solicitor general S V Raju responded to the remark by saying he would submit evidence to "dispel the court's impression" that the agency had been filing cases without having necessary evidence.

The court made the observation while hearing the bail plea of one of the accused in the Chhattisgarh liquor scam case, Arvind Singh, after it was not convinced with the agency's submission linking the accused with Rs 40 crore proceeds of crime. Raju said Singh was involved in the multi-crore liquor scam.

Show material to link C’garh scam accused to proceeds of crime, SC tells additional SG

Additional solicitor general S V Raju said Chhattisgarh liquor scam case accused, Arvind Singh, was involved in the multi-crore liquor scam and he was instrumental in procuring empty liquor bottles through a company Anurag Traders. The ASG said he was running a parallel liquor business in the state causing a scam of over Rs 2,000 crore.

The bench asked the ASG to show material to link Singh with the company and with Rs 40 crore proceeds of crime unearthed by the agency. When the court noted that Singh was neither managing director nor director nor held any post in the company, Raju said he was indirectly managing the affairs of the company.

As the bench seemed unconvinced, Raju, who was arguing online, sought time to appear in court and place relevant documents to substantiate the allegations against Singh and dispel the bench's impression that allegations were made without proof.

Pressing for bail, senior advocate Siddarth Agarwal said his client had already spent 10 months in jail and trial was unlikely to commence in the near future as the probe was still on. He said there were 21 accused in the case and documents running into 25,000 pages had been filed with over 150 witnesses named.

Raju, however, said bail could not be sought on ground of filing of voluminous documents and probe was complete on Singh's role. He said the accused had not spent one year in jail, a timeframe considered by the court for granting bail. The bench, however, said there was no such yardstick that bail could be granted only after an accused had spent one year in custody.

Interestingly, while speaking at ED's foundation day a few days ago, Raju, who has been the agency's main counsel, cautioned ED not to rush to arrest an accused and said it should be done at a later stage (of investigation) after making a watertight case. "Gather evidence before arrest and make sure the accused has been linked to 'proceeds of crime' rather than the predicate offence alone," he had said. If an accused was arrested at an early stage of investigation, it may not meet the requirement of the law and the accused may get relief from courts, he had suggested, adding that extracting confessions and collecting evidence were easier before an accused was arrested for alleged money laundering, rather than after his arrest. "Material evidence can be gathered when ED is still investigating a case, so get evidence before arrest. Don't be in haste in arresting," he had said.