ED can't arrest once special court takes cognisance of complaint: SC
"Accused who appear before court pursuant to summons not required to apply for bail; thus twin conditions of Section 45 of PMLA not applicable," the judges said
The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday (May 16) that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) cannot arrest an accused under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) once a special court takes cognisance of a complaint of money laundering.
Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said that when an accused appeared before a court in pursuance of a summons, the ED will have to apply to the court to get his or her custody.
"If the accused appears before the special court by summons (issued by court), it cannot be treated that he is in custody," the bench said.
Twin conditions
"Accused who appeared before the court pursuant to the summons not required to apply for bail, and thus twin conditions of Section 45 of PMLA not applicable," the judges said.
The twin conditions state that when an accused in a money laundering case applies for bail, the court has to first allow the public prosecutor to be heard and bail can be given only when it is satisfied that the accused is not guilty and unlikely to commit a similar offence when released.
The judgment was pronounced on a question of whether an accused in a money laundering case has to meet the stringent twin test for bail even in cases where the special court takes cognisance of the offence.
(With agency inputs)