In a striking legal development, Senior Advocate Harish Salve made a compelling argument before the court, asserting that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has a penchant for extending its investigative purview beyond the bounds of the predicate offence. This assertion came to the fore during Salve’s impassioned plea for the extension of interim bail for Benoy Babu, the Regional Manager of Pernod Ricard India, who is embroiled in a money laundering case connected to the Delhi liquor policy scandal. Salve emphasized that despite the reasons for Babu’s current release, the court had granted him a degree of respite, underlining the court’s discretion in matters of bail. This case has drawn considerable attention, not only for its implications in the ongoing investigation but also for the broader discourse on the regulatory reach and limits of investigating agencies like the ED.
