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A Delhi court on Wednesday sent three Tihar jail officials to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for six days.
The officials were arrested by the ED, the premier central probe agency for economic offences, in connection with a money laundering case related to jailed businessman Sukesh Chandrasekar. They were lodged at Delhi's Tihar jail. The agency had moved the Patiala House Court seeking seven-day custody of the arrested Tihar jail officials. Special Judge Shailendra Malik of Patiala House Court granted six days of police custody of the jail officials, identified as Dharam Singh Meena, Sunder Bora and Mahendra Prasad Sundriyal, to the ED. The accused were produced before the court through video conferencing. "I find that the for the purpose of the effective investigation to be carried out by the ED to confront the accused with the evidence up til now, and to unearth the other leads or evidence collected for the deep-rooted conspiracy, and find out proceeds of crime and laundering of money, the ED is provided with the custody of three accused persons for six days," the judge ruled. The court directed that the accused be medically examined by a chief medical officer (CMO) of a government hospital before being taken into ED custody. The court, however, permitted the accused to meet their lawyers for 15 minutes during the ED custody. They are to be produced again on February 13, the court directed. The special public prosecutor (SPP) submitted that for the purpose of identification of certain persons involved in the process of laundering, the end-use of the proceeds of crime as well as unearthing the deep-rooted conspiracy, the custodial interrogation of the accused persons was required. The court noted the submission of Sunder Bora that all the accused were in judicial custody and no new or incriminating evidence is with the ED for arresting them in the present case. However, the SPP also submitted that the ED may be provided custody but the investigation should be carried out while they are in judicial custody. Advocate Shariq Iqbal, the counsel for Sundriyal, urged the court to permit the accused to meet their lawyers in custody. He also urged the court to direct the ED to arrange medical examination of the accused persons. (ANI)
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