New Delhi, March 31 (IANS): The Supreme Court Thursday declined to hear the plea of Hasan Ali, the country's top-most tax evader under investigation for stashing away huge amounts of money abroad, challenging his "illegal" custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for three more days.
A bench of Justice B.Sudarshan Reddy and Justice S.S.Nijjar declined to entertain Hasan Ali's plea on the ground that there was no application or petition before it challenging the Mumbai special court's order giving his three-day custody to the ED.
The court told Hasan Ali's counsel Santosh Paul that it would not entertain any oral submissions.
Counsel for the ED told the court that it had sought Hasan Ali's custody in the wake of the apex court order directing video and audio recording of his interrogation. The court was told that Hasan Ali is in the ED's office from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Paul told the apex court that the special court granted Hasan Ali's custody to the ED without waiting for the apex court order of Tuesday wherein it had permitted both the ED and Hasan Ali to plead their cases before the special court.
The apex court had said that if the ED wanted to undertake further custodial interrogation of Hasan Ali, it could move the special court which would give its ruling without being influenced by its earlier adverse observations against ED.
In the same order, the apex court had permitted Hasan Ali to move the special court afresh for bail.
Paul said the special court was told to wait for the apex court's order before passing any order on the ED's plea. "There cannot be police custody after 15 days of arrest. He (Hasan Ali) can only be sent to judicial custody," Paul told the court.
Arguing his client was "in an illegal custody with no remedy", Paul sought that Hasan Ali should be allowed to avail the liberty given by apex court.
The court was not moved.
"If the magistrate has passed a wrong and erroneous order, then you can seek remedy by taking the legal recourse and moving the high court," the court said.
When Paul told the court that he was making a mentioning, the court asked him to file an application or petition and then it would hear it.