Senior advocate Rebecca John, who appeared for Vijay Nair, opposed the ED remand by submitting that the CBI and ED were “working in tandem to defeat my bail.” (Express archive photo)AAP communication in-charge Vijay Nair and businessman Abhishek Boinpally have been granted bail by a Delhi court in connection with a CBI case regarding alleged irregularities in the Excise policy. They, however, will not be released from custody since they were arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case and sent to five-day custody.
Special Judge NK Nagpal remanded Nair and Boinpally in ED custody till Saturday after the investigating agency told the Court that their custody was important “to confront them with voluminous documents”.
The court also asked the ED why it did not question the accused persons while they were in CBI custody.
Special public prosecutor NK Matta told the Court that the accused persons were giving evasive replies to their questions and considering the voluminous documents, borne out of 169 raids, their custody was required for effective questioning. The agency told the Court that they moved the remand application as their role in the money laundering case emerged while investigating the case.
Senior advocate Rebecca John, who appeared for Nair, opposed the ED remand by submitting that the CBI and ED were “working in tandem to defeat my bail.”
“My limited submission is that there should be some manner of propriety and ethics… Arresting me close to the 30th day, you are treating custody as punitive. I am being punished prior to the trial just to suit different agencies’ conveniences,” John told the Court.
John told the Court that this practice adopted by the agencies must be deprecated. “It should not appear that movement of the investigating agency happens when we move,” John argued.