New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (March 20) criticised the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for keeping people in jail endlessly before trial, and filing supplementary chargesheets so that the accused cannot avail the default bail option.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, according to Bar and Bench, said that the court was bothered by the ED’s practice of keeping trials going indefinitely while keeping the accused in jail.
“The whole object of default bail is that you do not arrest until investigation is complete. You cannot say trial will not commence unless investigation is not complete. You cannot keep on filing supplementary chargesheet and the person is in jail without trial. In this case, the person is behind bars for 18 months. This is bothering us. In some case we will take it up and we are putting you to notice in that. Trial has to … begin when you arrest an accused,” Justice Khanna said to Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, who was appearing for the ED.
The court was hearing a default bail plea filed by former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren’s alleged associate Prem Prakash, who was arrested in August 2022. The high court had denied Prakash bail in January 2023.
In court on Wednesday, the judges noted that Prakash has been in jail for 18 months and it is a clear case of bail. The courtroom exchange reported by Bar and Bench went like this:
“It is a clear case of bail Mr Raju. Is it not,” the bench asked.
“There are interesting questions here,” ASG Raju said.
“Interesting okay but the person is behind bars,” Justice Khanna remarked.
“But evidence tampering,” ASG replied.
“You come to us if he does any of that. But 18 months in jail,” Justice Khanna replied.
