Drastic powers given to ED; if Supreme Court does not rein them in, no one is safe: M3M directors' counsel Harish Salve to SC

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been vested with enormous powers in probing money laundering cases and should be reined in lest it endangers individual liberty, Senior Advocate Harish Salve told the Supreme Court on Tuesday, while appearing on behalf of directors of realty group M3M..The top court was hearing a batch of pleas, including challenges to a recent Delhi High Court order that had refused to interfere with the arrest of M3M directors, Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal in a money-laundering investigation related to a bribery case against a former judge. .Salve, along with Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, was representing the Bansals today before the top court.."These are drastic powers given to the ED. If Lordships do not rein them in, no one is safe in this country. See how the arrest was done. They were cooperating. Arrest was in violation of my rights then surely this Court can... These powers need to be reined in. 14 days they have been inside," Salve told a bench of Justices AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh..There was not even a whisper of any violation of anticipatory bail conditions to prompt the ED to act in such a manner, he added..Justice Sundresh, in a lighter vein, remarked, "You are right. It is a cat-and-mouse game. They are using the laws.".The Bansal brothers were arrested by the ED on June 14. Thereafter, a special court in Haryana's Panchkul sent them to five days of custody.The brothers have challenged the same, contending that such custody amounts to illegal detention and was an effort to avoid the High Court’s orders granting them protection from coercive action in another money laundering case..Supreme Court judge, Justice KV Viswanathan had recused from hearing the matter last month.The Bansal brothers were arrested by the Haryana Police’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in connection with a first information report (FIR) registered earlier this year against former Special Judge CBI/ED, Sudhir Parmar.The ED claimed that it had received information that Parmar was showing favouritism to the accused in a money laundering case concerning real estate firm, IREO.After the ACB registered the case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court suspended Parmar..The top court, in its order today, noted that the Bansal brothers would now be moving the Punjab and Haryana High Court for anticipatory bail. In view of the same, their petitions were disposed of. .Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the ED, informed the bench that it would be challenging the order passed in another case granting the brothers interim protection from arrest, once it comes up before the Delhi High Court tomorrow. The hearing in the agency's petitions before the top court was, therefore, deferred by two weeks.