Bail – A criminal complaint u/ss. 406, 407, 415 to 420, 120B r/w s.34 IPC was filed against six persons, including the appellant – Complaint was, that Farmax India Ltd. availed the services of the accused in raising Global Depository Receipts (GDRs), to the tune of INR 318 crores; that though the accused raised the said amount, they transferred to Farmax only a sum of INR 2.20 crores – According to the Enforcement Directorate, the appellant and the others had committed the offence of money-laundering – Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) was lodged – Appellant was arrested on 26.09.2022 – Enforcement Directorate also filed a prosecution complaint u/ss. 44 and 45 of Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 – From 26.09.2022 appellant was in jail – Held: ECIR and the lodging of the prosecution complaint in the year 2022 were a sequel to the registration of the FIR filed in 2013 – No final report filed in the FIR for the predicate offence, for the past nine years – De-facto complainant in the FIR for the predicate offence, was sought to be arrested as an accused in connection with the ECIR, but the application of the Enforcement Directorate for remand was rejected – Prosecution complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate, gives room for a valid argument that the second condition found in Clause (ii) of sub-section (1) of Section 45 of PMLA is satisfied qua the appellant – The continued incarceration of the appellant not justified – Appellant directed to be enlarged on bail.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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