The Delhi High Court on August 10 sought the stand of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on a plea by businessman and Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) communication in-charge Vijay Nair seeking default bail in a money laundering case related to the alleged excise policy scam.
Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma issued notice on the bail application and granted time to the investigation agency to file its reply. Mr. Nair, who was arrested on November 13, 2022, was refused default bail in the case by the trial court on July 29. The trial court had dismissed the bail plea, saying it was not the competent or an appropriate forum to consider the grounds of default bail of the accused and the appropriate course would be to approach the same judge or Bench of the High Court, which had earlier dismissed his bail plea, with a request for consideration of the point. Senior advocate Rebecca John, appearing for Mr. Nair, contended before the High Court that the ED filed “piecemeal charge sheets” in the matter and the accused was thus entitled to statutory bail.
The ED counsel opposed the bail plea, and said issue of default bail has already been unsuccessfully argued by the accused in an earlier bail plea. Ms. John said bail is a right which impacts personal liberty and on the earlier occasion, the reference to default bail was only part of the “narrative” and was never pressed as a ground for bail. Before the trial court, Mr. Nair’s counsel had contended that the supplementary prosecution complaint (charge sheet) filed by ED was within the statutory period of 60 days of arrest but without actual completion of the investigation qua him.
