Order remanding Nawab Malik to ED custody was neither mechanical nor illegal: ASG
India Today
The ASG argued that a Habeas Corpus petition challenging a remand order can be entertained only if the remand is absolutely illegal or if it is passed in an absolutely mechanical manner.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Anil Singh, representing the Enforcement Directorate (ED), concluded his submissions opposing the plea filed by Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik challenging his arrest and remand by the central agency in a money laundering case involving underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in the Bombay High Court.
The ASG said that Malik's Habeas Corpus petition was not maintainable as per the grounds raised in the reply filed by the ED.
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The ASG argued that a Habeas Corpus petition challenging a remand order can be entertained only if the remand is absolutely illegal or if it is passed in an absolutely mechanical manner. The order passed remanding Malik to ED custody came after considering all submissions and material placed before the Special PMLA judge, said the ASG.
The special judge had found the offence of money laundering and the arrest valid, said ASG. "Just because you do not agree with an order of the judge does not make an order mechanical or illegal. If that is so, then every order of remand will be challenged through Habeas Corpus and the courts will be flooded," ASG said.
A contention was raised by the ASG that PMLA had broadly defined 'money laundering' to include all activities leading to the actual laundering and those criminal activities were not dependent on the offences mentioned under the Schedule of the PMLA. He submitted that even if a court quashed the “predicate offence”, which has led to the money laundering case, the offence of money laundering will independently survive.
Going ahead in his argument, the ASG argued that unlike an FIR, which is a public document, the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) is a private document that cannot be quashed as is being sought.
