TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2022 (5) TMI 577
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....and Minister of Health and Labour, Government of Jharkhand, having directly or indirectly indulged in process and activities in connection with proceeds of crime of the schedule offence and knowingly have obtained/acquired huge properties and made bank transactions in the Jharkhand and other states by involving in process and activities connected with the proceeds of the crime of the schedule offences of the said offences under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 value d Rs.7,97,96,888/ and the petitioner and others have projected the said properties as untainted properties. It further transpires that after framing the charge, the six witnesses have been examined by the prosecution during the trial and except P.W.3 rest of the witnesses have supported the case of the prosecution. 3. The case of the prosecution in brief is that the petitioner was elected as Member of Legislative Assembly on 13.03.2005 and while working as public servant as Member of Legislative Assembly and as Minister of Health and Labour, Government of Jharkhand during the check peri od of 13.03.2005 to 24.07.2009 acquired assets disproportionate to his known source of income to the extent of Rs.6,99,95,96....
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....ame the property was acquired; was not advanced. (ii) The second modus operandi was that a trust in the name and style of Dehati Sthapna Nyas was formed by the petitioner and the petitioner being Authorized Signatory of the trust was instrumental in making fake deposits in the said trust by fake persons to inflate the income earned by the said trust and during the investigation, the Chart er ed Accountant , Atul Jalan has categorically stated that the petitioner and his personal secretary, the co-accused U.S. Malviya handed over the blank receipt books of the said trust to the petitioner and gave the Pan Card s of the different persons and told the Chartered Accountant to fill up the receipts in the name of such persons , and on the investigation, it was found that such persons who have allegedly donated their money to the said trust, have no means to make donation (iii) The third modus operandi is that by establishing two front companies namely M/s Sonanchal Buildcon (P) Ltd. and M/s Angesh Trading Co. P Ltd both located at Delhi huge amount of money was shown to have been received by the said two companies by selling their shares though in fact the shares of the....
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....entioned that the settled legal position, as mentioned in the above decisions, is that if on the basis of material on record the court could form an opinion that the accused might have committed offence it can frame the charge, though for conviction the conclusion is required to be proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused has committed the offence. At the time of framing of the charges the probative value of the material on record cannot be gone into, and the material brought on record by the prosecution has to be accepted as true at that stage. Before framing a charge the court must apply its judicial mind on the material placed on record and must be satisfied that the commitment of offence by the accused was possible. Whether, in fact, the accused committed the offence, can only be decided in the trial. 19. Some of the questions, however, which have been raised by the appellant are of some importance and it may be necessary to deal therewith. The learned trial Judge, it appears, did not properly apply its mind in regard to the different categories of the accused while framing charges. It ought to have been done. Charge may although be directed to be framed when th....
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....s Court after considering the scope of Section 227 observed that the words 'no sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused' clearly show that the Judge is not merely a post office to frame charge at the behest of the prosecution but he has to exercise his judicial mind to the facts of the case in order to determine that a case for trial has been made out by the prosecution. In assessing this fact it is not necessary for the court to enter into the pros and cons of the matter or into weighing and balancing of evidence and probabilities but he may evaluate the material to find out if the facts emerging therefrom taken at their face value establish the ingredients constituting the said offence. After considering the case law on the subject, this Court deduced as under: (SCC p. 9, para 10) "(1) That the Judge while considering the question of framing the charges under Section 227 of the Code has the undoubted power to sift and weigh the evidence for the limited purpose of finding out whether or not a prima facie case against the accused has been made out. (2) Where the materials placed before the court disclose grave suspicion against the accused which has no....
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....outhpiece of the prosecution, but has to consider the broad probabilities of the case, the total effect of the evidence and the documents produced before the court but should not make a roving enquiry into the pros and cons of the matter and weigh the evidence as if he was conducting a trial (see Union of India v. Prafulla Kumar Samal [(1979) 3 SCC 4 : 1979 SCC (Cri) 609]". 5. Learned senior counsel also relied upon the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in the case of DSP Chennai Vs. K. Inbasagaran. Reported in (2006) 1 SCC 420 in which after conviction of the accused of that case by the trial court in appeal it was observed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India that when the accused comes forward with pleas that all the money which has been recovered from his house and the purchase of real estate or the recovery of the gold and other deposits in the bank all have been owned by the wife of the accused, then he is said to have satisfactorily accounted for the recovery of the unaccounted money and in that situation unaccounted money ought not have been laid in the hands of the accused. 6. Mr. Ajit Kumar, learned senior counsel for the petitioner also relied upon th....
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....at at least grave suspicion is required for framing the charge against an accused in any trial but here in this case as has been mentioned in the complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate upon the investigation not only strong suspicions rather if the contention s made therein which is supported by the evidences is treated as true then the materials in record is sufficient even for establishing the charges both for the offences punishable under Section 3 & 4 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 against the petitioner beyond reasonable doubt. Hence, the said settled principle of law relied upon by the learned senior counsel for the petitioner are not applicable in the facts of this case. It is submitted that this is in fact the second journey of the petitioner before this court and earlier the petitioner moved with a prayer for quashing the order by which cognizance was taken by the learned Special Judge, CBI vide order dated 25.03.2014 but the same was dismissed vide order dated 08.07.2014 in Cr.M.P. No.1027 of 2014 by the predecessor Judge of this Bench. It is next submitted that the learned Special Judge, CBI in view of the overwhelming materia ls in the record rightl....
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....e of Rs.7,97,96,888/ and also there is specific allegation of adopting three modus operandi for the same which are as under: (i) The petitioner acquired immovable property in the name of his relatives who could not give any satisfactory explanation regarding their sources of acquisition of properties as such the explanations regarding the source of money for acquisition of such properties given by them were found to be false during the investigation of the case and their statements were contradictory to the statement given by them to the CBI in connection with R.C.05(A)/10 AHD R and upon verification it was also found that the claims as have taken by the co accused persons who laundered the money of the petitioner were fake and false and in fact, the loan as claimed by the persons in whose name the property was acquired; was not advanced. (ii) The second modus operandi was that a trust in the name and style of "Dehati Sthapna Nyas was formed by the petitioner and the petitioner being Authorized Signatory of the trust was instrumental in making fake deposits in the said trust by fake persons to inflate the income earned by the said trust an d during the investigati....