Work throughout night, submit report by 2:30 pm on Wednesday: Court tells ED

Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday was reprimanded by the Special PMLA Court for failing to submit documents that were necessary for framing of charges in the primary recruitment scam case.

Earlier on December 13, the Supreme Court Division Bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan granted bail to Partha Chatterjee, observing that undertrial incarceration should not amount to punitive detention and a suspect cannot be kept in custody indefinitely.

The Bench directed the trial court to pronounce its order on the framing of charges in the money laundering case before the commencement of winter vacations or latest by December 31, 2024. On Monday at the hearing, the framing of charges was delayed due to not having the proper documents that were necessary for the procedure. Accordingly, the magistrate directed the ED to complete the documentation process and charge framing will be done on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the ED officials were reprimanded by the magistrate for not completing the documentation process. The ED officials tried to convince the court by mentioning that it takes about 12 hours to extract data from a mobile phone due to which it is taking time.

However, the court was not satisfied with the logic and directed the Central agency to start working on the documentation process and if necessary, they will have to work throughout the night of Christmas Eve. The court also directed the ED to hand over the documents to all the parties physically and submit the same at the court by 2:30 pm on Wednesday.