This is inhuman…Supreme Court reprimands ED for interrogation for 15 hours without break

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has raised questions on the proceedings of the ED. ED had interrogated former Haryana Congress MLA Surendra Panwar till late night. This interrogation continued for about 15 hours and till after midnight. The court has called it excess and inhuman treatment. ED had arrested Panwar in a money laundering case related to illegal mining. But the Punjab and Haryana High Court had canceled the arrest. ED had gone to the Supreme Court against the High Court’s decision. The Supreme Court rejected the ED’s appeal and upheld the High Court’s decision.

Court expressed concern over ED’s way of working

The Supreme Court bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih expressed concern over the functioning of the ED. he/she said that the agency was forcing a person to give a statement. This is a shocking situation. ED lawyer Zoheb Hussain said that the High Court has wrongly recorded in its order that Panwar was interrogated continuously for 14 hours and 40 minutes. he/she said that during the interrogation he/she was given a break to eat dinner. Hussain also said that the agency has already taken steps to ensure that people are not interrogated late at night.

ED’s petition rejected

The Supreme Court rejected ED’s argument. The bench asked how the agency could torture a person by interrogating him/her for so long without a break. However, the court clarified that the High Court and its own observations are only on the issue of grant of bail and not on the merits of the case. The High Court in its order had said that as per the ED case, notice/summons was issued to the petitioner and he/she reached the Gurgaon office of the ED at 11 am and was called continuously for 14 hours till 1:40 pm (July 20). he/she was interrogated for 40 minutes.

‘Interrogation should be done keeping human rights in mind’

The High Court had further said, ‘For the foreseeable future, in view of the mandate under Article 21, this Court is of the view that the ED should adhere to some reasonable time limit for conducting a one-time investigation against the suspect(s) in such cases. Will sensitize you to do so. To be precise, it would be appreciated if some necessary system is put in place for fair investigation of the accused as per the basic human rights laid down by UN, instead of unnecessary harassment for so long for a given day.

‘This is not a case of terrorist activity but of sand mining’

The Supreme Court echoed the sentiments of the High Court and said that this was inhuman behavior on the part of ED officials. The court said that this is not a case related to terrorist activity but a case of illegal sand mining and people should not be treated like this in such a case. The court said that you are forcing a person to give a statement.

The Supreme Court upheld the High Court order which held that Panwar’s initial arrest as well as the grounds for arrest were not sustainable in law and that the ED had no material to establish that the politician had directly or was indirectly involved in any process or activity connected with the proceeds of crime.