The premise of Jignesh Shah’s detention is unjustified

The government of a country is its fundamental unit which is central to its overall welfare. In the broader sense, government is equated with integrity, uprightness and justice. Thus, it is imperative that all the actions undertaken by the government should abide by the legislative protocol. However, the recent case concerning the detention of Jignesh Shah, the Managing Director of Financial Technologies Group (FTIL) reflects the incongruity on the part of government. Enforcement Directorate (ED) which has been appointed by the Finance Ministry to investigate the matter is clearly led astray and has detained Mr. Shah on illegitimate grounds. It is for the second time in a span of two years that he has been remanded to the police custody for the same charge. As per the norms of the judicial protocol, it is clearly illegal to detain a person on the grounds of the same charges for which he has been released earlier.

The arrest of Mr. Shah was subject to a number of disbeliefs expressed by various prominent personalities like senior advocates, Satish Manshinde and Majid Memon. Talking about the matter, KTS Tulsi, senior advocate of Supreme Court stated that he was “sanguine” that Shah’s arrest can be deemed unconstitutional.

“The money trail has not been established, and the ED has not submitted any fresh evidence, they cannot force an accused to accept allegations,” said Tulsi.

He further added that “The investigating agencies want favourable judgements all time and are becoming a bit desperate,”

The fact that no money trail has been traced to Shah as of now raises the inexorable question of the need for arrest in this matter. The ingenuousness of Mr. Shah is further reinforced by his cooperation with the concerned agencies throughout the investigation process. This brings us to the clear conclusion that the premise of Jignesh Shah’s detention is unjustified and uncalled for.