Supreme Court's strict comment on ED - No person can be kept in jail by filing supplementary charge sheet without hearing

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

The Supreme Court in India has come down hard on the Enforcement Directorate for filing a supplementary chargesheet and dragging on the investigation while hearing a case on Wednesday, March 20, 2024.

The bench of Justices Sanjeev Khanna and Dipankar Dutta was hearing the bail plea of Prem Prakash. Prem Prakash was allegedly a close associate of former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren in a money laundering case.

Prem Prakash is in custody since August 2022. At that time weapons were recovered from his residence in Ranchi. A case was registered against him under the Arms Act and Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Four supplementary charge sheets have been filed so far in this case.

Justice Khanna said, “We want to remind you (ED) that under the law you cannot arrest a person before the completion of the investigation. A person cannot be kept in custody before the trial begins.''

Justice Khanna said that the provision of default bail was made to ensure that if the police do not file the charge sheet within the stipulated time, the accused can be released from jail. However, the investigation is still ongoing after a supplementary charge sheet has been filed in this case.

Justice Khanna said, "You cannot keep a person in jail without filing the supplementary charge sheet without trial."

Justice Khanna said that despite the stringent provisions under PMLA, the court can grant bail to the accused if there is inordinate or inordinate delay in the trial.

The next hearing in this case will be on 29 April 2024.

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