NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a plea by the Enforcement Directorate challenging a Bombay High Court order, which held the arrest of former Vasai-Virar civic body chief Anil Pawar in a money laundering case as “illegal”.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Pawar in connection with the case on August 13.
The ED alleged that illegal constructions were raised and 41 buildings were constructed during 2008-2010 by the accused builders and developers in connivance with the officials of the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra.
The ED’s plea challenging the high court’s October 15 order came up for hearing before a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta on Monday.
The bench sought Pawar’s response on the ED’s plea and posted the matter for hearing after three weeks.
Pawar had moved the high court challenging his arrest, claiming that it was an illegal and arbitrary exercise of power by the arresting officer.
The ED alleged that the investigation conducted between February 2025 and before August 13, 2025, revealed that Pawar was involved in the crime, and received huge illegal gratifications.
Pawar has denied the allegations. It was said that Pawar, a 2014-batch IAS officer, joined the Vasai-Virar city municipal corporation as commissioner on January 13, 2022, and remained in the post till July 25, 2025.
“When we examined the materials on record with reference to the aforementioned dictum, we see no prima-facie case made out against the petitioner for his arrest on August 13, 2025,” the high court had said.
The high court noted in its order that the ED had referred to illegal constructions of 41 buildings but Pawar cannot be said to be a party in the illegalities committed at that time, as it termed the arrest illegal.
The high court had also quashed the orders of remand passed by a special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) Act, and ordered that Pawar be released.
The case pertains to alleged illegal construction of residential and commercial buildings on government and private land under the jurisdiction of the Vasai-Virar city municipal corporation.
