MUMBAI, Oct. 17 -- The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has approached the Supreme Court, challenging the Bombay High Court's order declaring the arrest of former Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVCMC) chief Anilkumar Pawar as illegal and ordering his immediate release from jail. ED sources said they have also requested the apex court to stay the high court order during pendency of their Special Leave Petition (SLP) and the plea has been posted for hearing on Friday. ED officials, however, refused to divulge details about the SLP or the grounds on which they have challenged the high court order. On Wednesday, the high court strongly criticised ED for arresting the IAS officer, calling the action arbitrary, illegal and unsupported by evidence. The bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad said Pawar's arrest was contrary to section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as well as an infringement of his fundamental rights under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution. As of August 13, the day Pawar was arrested, the arresting officer did not possess sufficient material to justify forming a "reason to believe" that the officer had committed an offence under the PMLA, the court said. The case arose out of a money laundering investigation linked to the construction of 41 now-demolished illegal buildings in Vasai East and alleged corruption prevailing in the VVCMC. The agency claimed that Pawar, who served as VVCMC commissioner from 2022 to July 2025, headed a cartel of officers, architects and liaison agents and accepted bribes in exchange for not taking action against the 41 illegal buildings and approving building plans. Pawar had received over Rs.17.75 crore through intermediaries and WhatsApp chats, code words and statements recorded under section 50 of the PMLA linked him to the proceeds of crime, the ED claimed. The high court, however, found the allegations speculative and unsupported by any direct evidence. "The case built up by the ED based on the statement of Mr YS Reddy (former VVCMC town planner, arrested alongwith Pawar on August 13) that a codeword system for collection of commission was devised does not lead anywhere," the bench said. Even ED's own search panchnama recorded that "no incriminating documents, unaccounted cash or electronic devices were found or seized" from Pawar's home, and there was no recovery of any material that could be treated as proceeds of crime, the court said. The judges also took serious note of the ED's reliance on documents that mirrored each other in language and content. "We observed that the same and similar facts are reiterated in the 'grounds of arrest' and 'reasons to believe'. This demonstrates that there was no application of mind by the arresting officer," the court said. The judges underscored that the absence of incriminating material, the lack of a direct money trail, and the absence of any named reference to Pawar in the predicate FIR demonstrated that the arrest was unsustainable in law. "We see no prima facie case made out against the petitioner for his arrest on August 13, 2025," the court said, ordering Pawar's release from jail....