TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2018 (1) TMI 1121
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.....M.A.No.244/2018 BAIL APPLN. 1114/2017 & Crl.M.A.No.239/2018 1. By way of the present applications, petitioners Virendra Jain and Surender Kumar Jain, the two brothers seek regular bail in ECIR/01/DLZOII/2017 dated 11th February, 2017 under Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (in short 'PMLA'). 2. The above-noted complaint was lodged after an order dated 28th October, 2013 was passed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs directing investigation by Serious Fraud Investigating Officer (in short 'SFIO') into affairs of the various companies. On the basis of the investigation report a Criminal Complaint No. 57463/2016 dated 29th November, 2016 was filed by SFIO against 31 accused persons including the two pe....
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....ion that M/s Jagat Projects Ltd. laundered its unaccounted income through the set of companies controlled by the petitioners in guise of share subscription money at a huge premium to the tune of Rs.64.70 crores during the financial year 2008-09 with the help of a professional Chartered Accountant Rajesh Aggarwal. It is the case of prosecution that the petitioners received Rs.1,11,46,000/- as commission @1.80% on the total accommodation entries of Rs.64.70 crores. 6. As per the petitioners after the income tax raids were conducted at their residential and business premises on 14th September, 2010 an assessment order was passed by the Assessing Authority, Income Tax Department against M/s Jagat Projects Ltd. opining that the share capital ....
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....t and a finding has been arrived at by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) that the money invested was by genuine share subscription they have been denied bail. Learned counsel for the petitioner further contends that the mandate of investigation by SFIO is only provisions of Companies Act and they cannot investigate penal offences. No scheduled offence having been found out there is no basis for a complaint under the provisions of PMLA. 8. Learned counsel for the respondent vehemently opposing the bail applications contends that since the predicate offence in the present case is money laundering of the tainted property by a scheduled offence, that is, 420 IPC even if it is held that no commission was paid, the said finding of the C....
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.... 11. In the complaint on the basis of which ECIR/01/DLZO-II/2017 was registered on 11th February, 2017 under Sections 3 and 4 of the PMLA the prosecution bases its case heavily on the findings of the Income Tax Assessing Officer vide Assessment Order dated 28th March, 2013, recording a finding that M/s Jagat Projects Ltd. had laundered its unaccounted income through a set of companies controlled by the petitioners in the guise of share subscription money at a huge premium to the tune of Rs.64.70 crores during the financial year 2008-09 with the help of professional Chartered Accountant Rajesh Aggarwal. As noted above the said finding of the Assessing officer has been set aside. 12. The second basis of the above noted complaint is the ....
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....d. The predicate offence of proceeds of crime in the present case is based on the alleged scheduled offence being Section 420 IPC and the maximum sentence that can be awarded to the petitioners for offence punishable under Section 4 of the PMLA is seven years imprisonment, being an offence in Paragraph-I of Part-A of the Schedule of offences. 14. In the decision reported as Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy (supra) the Supreme Court noted that while granting bail, the court has to keep in mind the nature of accusations, nature of evidence in support thereof, the severity of the punishment which conviction will entail, the character of the accused, circumstances which are peculiar to the accused, reasonable possibility of securing the presence of ac....