The Supreme Court on Friday declined to order the arrest of industrialist Anil Ambani in the multi-crore public sector bank fraud case, saying it cannot “activate” investigating agencies like the CBI or the ED to become “bloodhounds”.

The court said such action would be contrary to the top court’s own jurisprudence of an accused’s right to bail and presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, however, asserted that there should be a “thorough investigation” into the allegations to inspire public confidence in the probe process.

“We can’t do it. Even if the allegations are grave, that there is connivance and participation, we are not going to put the ‘cart before the horse’.

“On the one hand we want to develop jurisprudence like ‘Antil and Pankaj Bansal’, and if on the other hand we are activating investigating agencies like bloodhounds, it will be contrary to the law we are laying down,” Justice Bagchi told advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for the PIL petitioner E.A.S. Sarma.

The bench was referring to the Supreme Court’s judgments in the Satender Kumar Antil vs CBI case and the Pankaj Bansal Vs Enforcement Directorate case wherein the doctrine of “bail being the rule and jail an exception”, besides the presumption of the accused’s innocence and providing the grounds of arrest, were made mandatory.

The court made the observation when Bhushan argued that it was “puzzling” the CBI and the ED had failed to arrest Ambani despite the agencies terming him the “kingpin” of the alleged fraud.

“We have annexed one chargesheet of the CBI. It is so stark, gross and clear. It’s regarding transactions between Anil Ambani’s companies and private companies of
the chairman of Yes Bank. Both charge-sheeted, but nobody has been arrested,” Bhushan said.

He alleged that the CBI, Sebi and the ED had been saying that “Anil Ambani is the kingpin. He was directing all these things. Yet, I find it very puzzling that neither the CBI nor the ED is willing to arrest him. As if he is some holy cow who is above arrest.”

He sought to draw some inferences from one of the chargesheets filed by the CBI, which was objected to by senior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for Ambani.

CJI Kant said the court was only “monitoring the case”, adding: “We can’t be vetting the chargesheet.”

The bench said the question of conducting a thorough investigation and whom to arrest was best left to the “wisdom of the investigating agencies, and the court will not interfere with the process”.

Sibal wondered how Bhushan managed to get a copy of the chargesheet when cognisance had not been taken so far by the trial court and even Ambani did not have a copy.

“His (Bhushan’s) only agenda is to get Anil Ambani arrested,” Sibal argued.