ED refuses to rule out Karti arrest under PMLA

The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday refused to rule out Karti Chidambaram’s arrest under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and resisted any interim protection to him from the Supreme Court, prompting his lawyers to withdraw the plea from the top court and go to the High Court for relief.

ED counsel Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a three-judge bench, led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, that the ED could arrest anyone without an FIR. “There is a serious money trail…. Even in its (FIR’s) absence we can arrest with whatever material we have.”

He accused Karti’s lawyers of trying to indirectly seek the top court’s intervention to have the case against him quashed. Karti’s lawyer Kapil Sibal expressed his fear that he would be picked up by the ED as soon as he was out of CBI custody. He accused the investigative agencies of acting mala fide. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued that the CBI had already arrested him in connection with the same offence.

He was issued summons, and had presented himself for investigation, he contended. Sibal argued that the ED was trying to arrest him in 2017 for a case that dated back to 2005-2006. The CJI demanded to know if the ED was planning to take him to jail the moment he stepped out, but the ED counsel refused to make any unequivocal statement. “I don’t need to answer if I am arresting,” Mehta said.

Sibal then urged the top court to grant Karti interim protection from the arrest. Mehta resisted it saying that any interim relief in this case would set a wrong precedent as it would be followed by a host of others facing similar charges under the money-laundering act. “This process is being abused to get relief,” he alleged, prompting Sibal to charge that the top court has in an earlier instance quashed an FIR against BJP chief Amit Shah. Sibal hit back after Mehta referred to Karti as a “common criminal” repeatedly.

“First arrest, now narco test. We all know what is happening,” he said. He then urged the top court to send Karti’s case back to the High Court so that it can be heard urgently. The top court’s case load would not allow a quick hearing, he said. Mehta initially resisted and tried to prevail upon the CJI to hear the case and not transfer it to the High Court.