ED under suspicion.

The Court has once again interpreted the powers of arrest given to the Enforcement Directorate ie IGH under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The Delhi High Court has made it clear that the ED does not have unlimited powers of arrest. Under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the ED cannot arrest any person on its own accord. Nowadays, the opposition in the country has raised serious questions against the functioning of the ED. Now it is a popular belief that the central government often raises the weapon of ED against opposition leaders and some of its own opponents. This belief has spread to such an extent that even if a real thief of the opposition is caught in the clutches of the IDI, people believe that the raids have taken place not because he is a thief, but because he belongs to the opposition.

It shows that the ED has exaggerated a bit in the raids. BJP should publish a list of those who are ministers or MPs in BJP governments and whose benami properties and hawala scams have been seized. The leaders of BJP are also from this country and they are not sons of God or washed with milk, but they do not come in the eyes of ED. Hearing a petition, a Bombay High Court judge clarified that if the Enforcement Directorate arrests a person, it must be absolutely certain that the person is guilty of money laundering. He will record the arguments related to it i.e. get possession of the relevant documents and then arrest. If a person is accused of money laundering, the ED can interrogate him, but the person has the right to seek anticipatory bail.

In this way, once again questions have been raised on the performance of the Enforcement Directorate. The Supreme Court had earlier also said that the Enforcement Directorate does not have the right to arbitrarily arrest any accused in money laundering cases, but even then there was no change in the functioning of the Directorate. It is difficult to say how much his stance will change after the recent interpretation of the Delhi High Court. In fact, the functioning of the Enforcement Directorate has been objected to for a long time. Raids by the Income Tax Department, the Central Bureau of Investigation i.e. CBI and the Enforcement Directorate have increased significantly in the last few years in the name of curbing corruption.

Opposition parties have alleged that these three agencies are acting out of revenge at the behest of the government. Some opposition parties had also appealed to the Supreme Court to stop unnecessary raids by these agencies, but the court said that since money laundering is a serious and sensitive matter and some of it may be related to financing terrorism, it should be referred to the IGA, BHAM and Income Tax Department. Can't stop taking action. But even these agencies were instructed to work within the limits of their powers.

In fact, in many cases it was also observed that the IGH interfered even in the work falling under the purview of the CBI just on the basis of suspicion. According to law, the Enforcement Directorate should not take any arrest action against a person in a money laundering case until proven guilty, but there have been many instances when it has hastily sent people behind bars. Money laundering is undoubtedly a serious crime and it is no secret. Courts are well aware of the fact that a lot of money raised through corruption is diverted to safe havens under political patronage, but without support, evidence and sufficient documentation they cannot enter suo moto themselves even if they want to.

Courts have held in various cases that the cleanliness of the ED should definitely be restrained. Only if the ED system is transparent and fair, the credibility of investigating agencies can be maintained. Fingers will naturally be raised if action is taken targeting selected people. That is why the opposition parties are quoting the names of many such leaders, who have serious charges of money laundering, but since they are in the ruling party, the Enforcement Directorate turns a blind eye to them.