NEW DELHI: “The Enforcement Directorate cannot be a law unto itself,” warned the Supreme Court while considering the liquor lobby bribery case in Chhattisgarh that saw the ED forcing the police to register the case albeit the SC putting a stay on ED probe into the case.

The Supreme Court stayed the ED investigation on July 19. Even after this, the lawyers pointed out that the UP Police filed a case against the officers for allegedly making fake holograms. The police moved as per the instructions of the ED. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi argued that this is to bypass the stay order from Honourable SC.

With this, Justices S K Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia made strong references against ED. Earlier, the court stymied all investigations against IAS officer Anil Tuteja and his son Yash Tuteja, who are accused by the ED of having a major role in the bribery case. The court said the two will be protected from arrest and also informed about considering the case on September 26th.

The Chhattisgarh government had earlier alleged in the court that the ED investigation was to implicate Chief Minister Bhupesh Bagel in the case. SC while considering the case back in May advised the central agencies to not infuse an atmosphere of fear with the investigation.