The Delhi High Court has dismissed a petition filed by Supertech owner Ram Kishor Arora, seeking directions to declare his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case as illegal.
The single-judge bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma on Friday dismissed the petition on the grounds that there was nothing on record to suggest that the petitioner was arrested illegally and that his fundamental rights were violated. This could also not be proved that the petitioner had been denied the right to consult and defended by a legal practitioner.
Further, there was nothing on record to suggest or believe that the arrest of the petitioner was in violation under Section 19(1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
ED had arrested Arora on on June 27 on alleged charges of diverting, siphoning off and misappropriating the funds of investors and customers in the Supertech Group.
More than two dozen first information reports (FIRs) have been registered against Supertech and its group companies in Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh police on allegations of cheating 670 homebuyers to the tune of Rs 164 crore.
Arora moved the High Court alleging that he was not informed or served the grounds of his arrest.
On June 28, he moved an application in the trial court seeking a copy of the ground of arrest which was opposed by the ED. The special judge then directed the ED to file its reply in the matter.
The ED filed its reply and claimed that Arora was informed about the grounds of his arrest and that he was made to read and sign the same.
Arora was represented by Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, along with Advocates RK Handoo, Yoginder Handoo, Siddharth Bhatti, Aditya Chaudhary, Ashwin Kataria, Garvit Solank, Bhupendra Premi and Yatin Dev.
Special Counsel Zoheb Hossain, along with Advocates Vivek Gurnani and Baibhav appeared for ED.
(Case title: Ram Kishor Arora v Director, Directorate of Enforcement & Anr)