The Delhi High Court has issued notice to the Enforcement Directorate on the bail plea of Enamul Haque, who was arrested in connection with a money laundering case involving cattle smuggling across the India-Bangladesh border.
Justice Jyoti Singh sought the ED’s response and listed it for further arguments on July 11, 2022.
In this case, Haque’s counsel submitted that the ED has a vague case and has not been able to identify any illegal profits in the last two years and no offence of money laundering was made out against him.
The counsel added Haque has now spent more than 18 months in custody in three different prosecutions of the CBI and the ED all on one transaction. It was contended that Haque’s arrest is illegal and against the principles of law.
Haque’s counsel said the ED had never arrested him when he was in CBI custody for 14 months and after when the Supreme Court granted him bail, he was arrested by the ED a few weeks later.
He was granted bail by the Apex Court in the CBI case in January by the bench of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari.
The Enforcement Directorate had arrested him in February 2022. In this case, Vinay Mishra, a former Trinamool Congress leader, and his brother Vikas Mishra were also named. It was alleged the brothers were receiving money from Haque through hawala.
The case against Haque began in 2020 when he was arrested by the CBI in November. He was accused of bribing BSF personnel to smuggle cattle across the India-Bangladesh border.