‘PMLA abused enough; govts toppled on basis of ED’, says Kapil Sibal
New Delhi: Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal expressed his apprehension over the ‘abuse’ of the Prevention of the Money Laundering Act, 2002 to target political Opposition in the country, reported LiveLaw on Thursday. He made this remark during the Supreme Court hearing on the legality of DMK MP and Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji’s custody by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a cash-for-jobs scam in the state. Balaji and his wife have both filed separate petitions challenging a verdict of the Madras High Court holding that the central agency was entitled to seek police remand and take him into custody.
The senior counsel told a bench of Justices AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh: “What I am worried about is that the Prevention of Money Laundering Act has been used and abused enough. My worry is that. We stand here for our clients, who may win, or lose. But, the more important thing is the future of India in terms of the powers of the Enforcement Directorate, which has come into question. This is not straightforward.”
“Please confine yourselves to the facts and the law,” Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta sharply interjected in response to Sibal’s comment, before deprecating ‘emotive and political arguments’. The law officer added, “I have demonstrated that since 2002, when the act came into force, the total number of arrests by the Enforcement Directorate has not exceeded 300.”
Sibal shot back, “I have not made this political. But if he wants to make it political, then I must ask, what about the governments that have been toppled on the basis of the ED?”
“There is also a two years’ sentence on any person making any wrongful arrest,” Mehta continued, referring to Section 62 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, which lays down that any authority or officer who without reasons recorded in writing, either conducts a search of any property or detains, searches, or arrests any person may be handed a prison sentence of a maximum period of two years for such wrongful search, detention, or arrest.
Sibal, appearing for the embattled legislator, reiterated that the Enforcement Directorate seeking police remand was illegal inasmuch as they were not ‘police officers’ under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, as per the decision of the Supreme Court in the 2022 Vijay Madanlal Choudhary judgement. He stressed that the Prevention of Money Laundering Act did not even confer on the officers of this agency, the powers of an officer in charge of a police station, unlike other regulatory statutes like the Customs Act, 1962, and the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973.
