Businessman’s arrest ‘illegal’, says Delhi court, releases him

Bhalla was released on interim bail until February 24, on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh.

The court had earlier issued summons to the accused persons, and fresh summons were issued when those remained unserved.

“So, after carrying out the investigation, complaint/ chargesheet has been filed against the accused herein; cognizance of the offences has been taken; summons have been issued pursuant to that, the act of the agency in apprehending/ arresting the accused without permission of the court, and/or seeking his police custody remand is totally unjustified in the given facts and circumstances of the case,” the judge said.

The matter pertains to the supply of three EMP-145 aircraft to the government. The allegation against Bhalla was that he created shell companies to launder money received as commission in the aircraft deal.

An alleged middleman in the case, Bhalla was arrested by the ED at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata on February 13.

Judge Antil said when the court has applied its judicial mind after going through the available record and cognizance of the offence has been taken and summons have been issued against the accused persons, it does not lie within the powers of the investigating agency to arrest the accused and seek their custody remand simply on the plea that further investigation regarding the accused was pending.

“The said plea (ED’s remand application) appears to be routinely mentioned in a case of each accused in the complaint so filed, and the agency in my view cannot seek their police custody during further investigation of the case at hand,” the court said. “Acceding to the request of the agency would be tantamount to relegating the accused to the stage of pre-cognizance, which is, I would say, impermissible in law.”

The judge asked that if the accused may intend to appear before the court to attend trial, or is present in person in the court along with his surety pursuant to the summons issued to him, whether the agency can still arrest him merely by stating that his remand is required at this stage.

The court observed that on its specific query regarding steps taken by the agency about execution of the NBWs, the prosecutor, after discussing with the probe officer, “candidly admitted…that no steps whatsoever were taken by the agency after NBWs were taken from the court in January 2018”.