Hyderabadi businessman accused of liquor fraud alleges ‘third degree’ torture in detention

Arun Ramchandra Pillai of Hyderabad filed a plea in the Delhi High Court contesting his detention and arrest in a money laundering case involving the purported Delhi Excise Policy Scam, alleging the use of ‘third degree’ means to gather information. The Delhi High Court has requested the ED’s position on the matter.

The term ‘third degree’ describes the roughness utilized by police when questioning a suspect.

On Friday, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma requested a response from the investigation team regarding the maintainability of the plea.

In his representation of the petitioner, attorney Nitesh Rana claimed that the terms of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) were violated by the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) March 6 arrest warrant and the trial court’s subsequent remand orders sending him to the agency’s custody and then to judicial custody.

The petitioner claimed in his plea that he was never given oral or written grounds for his arrest, as required by Section 19(1) of the PMLA, and that this also infringes on his fundamental rights.

Furthermore, it is argued that the remand orders failed to reflect any satisfaction on whether the ED had evidence to support ‘reasons to believe’ that the petitioner violated the PMLA.

‘The Directorate of Enforcement, in a vindictive manner and solely as a witch-hunting exercise, has employed coercive tactics to obtain information and used third degree measures on the petitioner/applicant herein as well as the other accused,’ the petition said.

The ED ‘was enabled to act in such illegal manner by the Impugned Arrest Order as well as the Impugned Remand Orders, which in itself is a ground to quash the said Impugned Arrest Order and the Impugned Remand Orders,’ it stated.

The ED’s attorney argued that the petition could not be maintained.

The petitioner’s bail plea is also going to be taken into consideration on November 3, when the court has set the subject for another hearing.

The petitioner had requested bail earlier this month, claiming there was insufficient evidence to keep him behind bars.