Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer Ankit Tiwari's legal battle against his arrest by the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has taken a significant turn as the Supreme Court has sought a response from the DVAC to his default bail plea. 

The bench led by Justices Surya Kant and KV Viswanathan, issued notice on Monday, giving the DVAC four weeks to respond to Tiwari's plea. This development comes after the Supreme Court recently granted interim bail to Tiwari, who was arrested in December last year on allegations of accepting a bribe of ₹20 lakh from a doctor in Dindigul.

Representing Tiwari in the court, Advocate Shivam Singh stood to argue his case. Tiwari's plea challenges a verdict from the Madras High Court, which dismissed his default bail petition. The High Court's decision, passed on March 15 by Justice M Dhandapani of the Madurai bench, upheld a local court's ruling denying Tiwari statutory bail.

The crux of the matter lies in the fact that Tiwari's liberty is at stake due to the delay in the filing of a chargesheet by the DVAC. The High Court emphasized the importance of personal liberty but noted that the DVAC had not yet filed a chargesheet because the Supreme Court had temporarily halted the investigation on January 25, 55 days into the DVAC's probe.

Interestingly, the Enforcement Directorate had previously approached the Supreme Court seeking to transfer the probe from the DVAC to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The Supreme Court had taken note of this plea on January 25.