The Punjab government on Thursday afternoon withdrew its petition after a high court-appointed warrant officer reported that state government and Greater Mohali Development Authority (GMADA) officers were not “illegally detained” by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at the GMADA office in Sector 62.
Late Wednesday night, acting on a petition from the state government, the high court constituted a special bench, heard the matter and appointed a warrant officer to ascertain the claims. Following a request from the Punjab and in view of the survey being completed and the warrant officer’s report, the court allowed the state government to withdraw the petition. The court sought a report by 2 pm on Thursday. Female staff were allowed to leave the premises by 6 pm or 6:30 pm and seek assistance/help on a rotational basis.
“… (They told me) no undue pressure has been put on them to sign any paper or concede anything; and they were allowed to talk to their family members. Vikas Garg was allowed to visit his house for about two hours, while Aman Gupta was allowed to meet his brother and Rohit Jindal was allowed to meet his family members,” the report said. The report also said family members and friends were allowed to bring food for the officers. The report also said ED officials clarified that the officers’ personal presence was required as documents are to be scanned, cloned or downloaded in their presence and their signatures were to be obtained at the end of the exercise for the documents taken by the ED.
“Survey has to be conducted in the presence of officers. That is why they were there.
It was as per the mandate of the law,” Jain said after the hearing.
