Chandigarh: The petition filed by Punjab Cabinet Minister Sanjeev Arora challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case witnessed heated arguments in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday.
During the hearing, the defence raised serious questions over the arrest procedure, the timing of custody and the legality of the remand granted to the minister.
Appearing for Arora, senior counsel referred to the Supreme Court judgment in the Pankaj Bansal vs Union of India case and argued that the court must examine whether all legal safeguards were provided to the accused at the time of arrest.
The defence submitted that if the grounds of arrest were not properly communicated, the accused should be released immediately.
‘Minister was under custody since morning’
The defence further told the court that ED officials reached the minister’s official residence around 7 am on May 9 and allegedly did not allow him to leave the premises.
However, the official arrest time was shown as 4 pm.
Calling it a “legal fiction”, the counsel argued that the actual arrest begins the moment a person’s liberty is curtailed, irrespective of the time officially recorded in documents.
The matter pertains to the ED’s money laundering probe in which Sanjeev Arora was arrested earlier this month and later remanded to ED custody by a special court in Gurugram.
