Jignesh Shah’s lawyer, Abad Ponda vehemently opposed any extension and argued that his client’s arrest and detention were illegal. Ponda, relying on a decision by a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, argued that neither the ED nor any other agency had the power to arrest under Section 19 of the PMLA Act , once a court had taken cognizance.
Quoting from the judgment, he said that at the post cognizance stage, any person already arraigned under sections 3 and 4 of the PMLA Act (Shah is arraigned under these sections), cannot be arrested except if the court issues a warrant.He also reiterated that the court had on December 4, 2015 taken the view that this was not a case of warrant but of summons, and that this had not been challenged by the ED .
KTS Tulsi who is the senior advocate in court was asked for his stance on ED’s new move, he called the whole custody illegal and silly, with some facts to support his strong statement. According to Mr. Tulsi, the custody is illegal because if one will consider the act of 167 custody can be granted for 15 days, so this act of ED is basically a violation of the law. The high-handed conspiracy is present in this case, and if not then how one can take someone in custody multiple times with different charge sheets each time of the similar offense. ED desperately wants to prove that Jignesh Shah was the one who was running the show irrespective of any strong evidence to support these false allegations and not just that but, they are also not disclosing the fact or the basis in which they had a taken him on the hold.
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