THE Enforcement Directorate (ED), which arrested AAP MP Sanjay Singh in the Delhi excise policy case on Wednesday, has come under intense judicial scrutiny, with the Supreme Court saying that the premier investigating agency — which is tasked with probing money laundering and other economic offences — is not expected to be ‘vindictive’ in its conduct and must act with utmost probity. Ordering the release of the directors of a Gurugram-based realty group in a money laundering case, the court said every action of the ED was expected to be ‘transparent, above board and conforming to pristine standards of fair play in action’.

The court’s observations come amid accusations by AAP and other Opposition parties that the ED is being misused by the BJP-led Centre to settle political scores. The arrest of Sanjay Singh — the second senior AAP leader (after Manish Sisodia) to be nabbed by the ED this year — has sparked protests by party workers in Delhi and other parts of the country. Opposition leaders are apprehensive that more such arrests will take place in the run-up to the 2024 General Election. The ED has claimed that AAP used Rs 100 crore received as kickbacks from various stakeholders for its Assembly election campaign in Goa last year. However, the apex court has asked the directorate to answer a ‘legal question’ about why the political party alleged to be the main beneficiary of a purported scam has not been made an accused in the money laundering case pertaining to the now-scrapped excise policy.

Repeatedly accused of overreach and overzealousness, the ED would do well to take a serious note of the court’s strictures. Any attempt to circumvent the due process during investigations would erode the credibility of the probe agency. No corrupt person should be spared, but at the same time, no innocent one should be implicated — irrespective of his or her political affiliations.