Delhi Court Slams ED for Personal Queries to Supertech Chairman's Doctors, Calls for Professionalism

delhi court slams ed for personal queries to supertech chairman’s doctors, calls for professionalism

New Delhi: A Delhi Court recently admonished the Enforcement Directorate for inquiring about the personal details of a doctor during the verification of medical treatment records pertaining to an accused individual in a money laundering case.

Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala was dealing with an application filed by Ram Kishore Arora, Chairman of Supertech, requesting a 90-day extension of his interim bail on medical grounds.

During the hearing, appearing for Supertech Chairman, Senior Advocate Tanveer Ahmed Mir along with Advocates Kartik Venu and Shashwat Sarin apprised the Court that a team of officers of the ED grilled the treating doctors for about 7 hours and recorded their lengthy statement under Section 50 of the PMLA, which is contrary to the provisions of law. It was also alleged that the doctors were put to such lengthy enquiry just to harass them and dissuade them from performing their professional duties.

Additionally, the Court also reviewed the questionnaire posed by the Enforcement Directorate to the Doctor, revealing specific inquiries concerning the Doctor’s spouse and children.

Accordingly, the Judge in its order noted, “The perusal of the said questionnaire would reveal that certain personal questions were put to the treating doctors by the investigating agency which seems to have no concern with the verification of medical treatment record of the applicant/accused. The personal information of treating doctors and their family members was unwarranted. The Enforcement Directorate is a premier investigating agency constituted with a laudable object to deal with cases of money laundering, therefore, it is expected to show a high degree of professional standard.”

The Court also further went on to observe that, “The treating doctors are medical professionals, therefore they are required to be treated with the utmost regard and in a professional manner. Ld. Counsel for the applicant/accused has raised the contention that the treating doctors have been harassed or coerced by the investigating agency by examining them at length and recording their statement under Section 50 of the PMLA. But, in the absence of any complaint/grievance raised by the treating doctors, I refrain from dwelling deep into the present issue.”

Reprimanding the agency, the Court further asked the Special Counsel appearing for the Enforcement Directorate, Zoheb Hossain, to advise its investigating officers to refrain from seeking personal information of treating doctors or medical professionals at the time of verification of medical/treatment records, except when necessary.

While, on the merits of the application, the Court extended the interim bail of Supertech Chairman R.K. Arora for 30 days. The Court asked the applicant to surrender before the jail superintendent on the expiry of the 30 days.