The Supreme Court last week imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on an Enforcement Directorate officer after the central agency filed a petition to cancel the bail order of an accused person suffering from cancer, Bar and Bench reported on Friday.

A bench of Justices MR Shah and MM Sundresh pulled up the Enforcement Directorate for “wasting the stationery, the legal fees and court’s time” by filing such a petition. The penalty was imposed as an “exemplary cost”, the judges said, according to Live Law.

The Enforcement Directorate had filed the petition challenging the bail granted by the Allahabad High Court to the accused person, Kamal Ahsan, in November.

The central agency had in 2017, filed a case against Ahsan, an employee of a Prayagraj branch of private lender Axis Bank. Based on a complaint filed in 2013, Ahsan was accused of siphoning off Rs 22 crore from a state-aided university, through the bank accounts of his relatives.

He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in December 2020 under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Bar and Bench reported.

In November last year, Justice Rahul Chaturvedi of the Allahabad High Court granted bail to Ahsan after his lawyer told the court that he suffered from oral cancer, diabetes and fistula.

The High Court had held that Ahsan cannot be kept in jail for an “unlimited period”.