Senthil Balaji case: ED cannot seek police custody beyond 15 days from arrest, counsel Kapil Sibal tells Madras HC

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Kapil Sibal on Tuesday informed the Madras High Court that the Enforcement Directorate cannot seek police custody beyond the period of 15 days from the date of arrest when the habeas corpus petition filed by Minister Senthil Balaji's wife came up for hearing before Justice C V Karthikeyan. Sibal, appearing for Megala, wife of DMK Minister Balaji, submitted that the Enforcement Directorate cannot seek exclusion of the period of medical treatment taken by Senthil Balaji, for the purpose of taking him into police custody. He said Senthil Balaji was remanded in judicial custody and thereafter the ED obtained an order of 8 days' police custody.

But they did not execute the order. Hence, they cannot again seek police custody after a period of 15 days. Senthil Balaji is now in judicial custody.

If the ED wanted to interrogate him, they could still do it while he is in judicial custody, Sibal argued. There was no necessity to seek police custody, he added. Citing several judgments of the Supreme Court, Sibal said the ED has no power to seek police custody, because the ED officers were not police officers.

Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the ED has to investigate the laundering if the detenue is in possession of the property. In this case, there is no prima facie material to show that Senthil Balaji is in possession of the property. Therefore, the ED cannot arrest him, he said.

He said the PMLA is a unique statute empowering the ED to arrest, but on the condition that they have material evidence and there are reasons to believe that the detenue is guilty of an offence. Moreover, orally conveying the grounds of arrest is not sufficient. The grounds of arrest should be served on the accused, he added.