Watali judgment was a 'death-knell' to personal liberty: Former SC judge

CRITICISING the Supreme Court's ruling of upholding wide investigative powers of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), former top court judge Justice Deepak Gupta said ED officials "have been given every police power but they are held to be not police officers".

- SHRUTI KAKKAR

Delivering a lecture in a series organised by a media house, he said: "PMLA judgment is, in my opinion, even a bigger blow than the Watali judgment. It turns the criminal law on its head. Even if we presume that the material placed by the police is right and accepted as a gospel truth, why cannot the court see all the material which has been collected and decide whether the same shows the prima facie case or not? The officials of the