TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2022 (10) TMI 518
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....s reserved. 2. This petition has been filed for quashing the order dated 09.05.2022 passed in Misc. Criminal Application No.362 of 2022 by learned Additional Judicial Commissioner-XVIII-cum-Special Judge, Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Ranchi whereby the petition filed by the petitioner under Section 205 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C.) for dispensing with the personal appearance of the petitioner has been rejected in connection with ECIR 05/2021, corresponding to CNR-JHRN01-002561-2022, pending in the same learned court. 3. The complaint was filed under sections 44 and 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 [hereinafter to be referred to as PMLA Act, 2002, for short] alleging therein that (i) the complaint case under the PMLA Act, 2002 has been initiated against the petitioner on the basis of the F.I.R. registered by the C.B.I., A.C.B., Dhanbad being RC1(A)/2020-D dated 10.02.2020, (ii) that it is stated that the aforementioned F.I.R. by the C.B.I., A.C.B., Dhanbad was registered against the petitioner on the basis of one complaint filed by Amit Sarawgi alleging, inter alia, that the petitioner being 'Insolvency Professional' demanded a bribe of Rs.2 ....
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....he illegal withdrawal of money by the complainant. The petitioner raised the issue before Amit Sarawagi and asked him to return the money for being deposited in the account of the company otherwise, legal action will be taken against him. Thereafter, on 03.02.2020, the complaint was lodged before the C.B.I by Sri Amit Sarawagi, ex-Director of Adi Ispat Pvt. Ltd. On 10.02.2020, the F.I.R was lodged by the C.B.I. giving rise to RC1(A)/2020. On 11.02.2020 the petitioner visited the office of N.Khetadas Machine Tools Works Pvt. Ltd., Giridih, where the petitioner was arrested by C.B.I for allegedly accepting bribe from Amit Sarawagi. The petitioner did not receive or possess any money even as per the allegation as the money was seized by the CBI and FIR was registered. He submitted that merely on the allegation in R.C case that a sum of Rs.3 lakhs allegedly bribe money was seized an ECIR was registered by ED and the investigation started. He submitted that neither any proceeds of crime was found or possessed by the petitioner nor any proceeds of crime was projected to be untainted money by the petitioner. The C.B.I submitted the charge-sheet under section 7 of the P.C.Act on 31.12.2020....
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....itioner has asked for bribe from the Managing Director of the defaulter company is required to be decided in the trial. The petitioner has fully cooperated the E.D during investigation and has made statement under section 50 of the PMLA Act. He submitted that the petitioner remained in custody for more than two months in the case of scheduled offence of being arrested by the CBI, thus for the same case the denial of the relief will amount to sending the petitioner again to jail even though he has been granted bail for the scheduled offence. The E.D has already filed its complaint after completing the investigation and hence there is no requirement of any interrogation much less custodial interrogation. He submitted that the petitioner undertakes to submit any personal bond for securing his physical presence as and when required by the learned trial court. In these backgrounds, he submitted that the learned trial court has not taken into consideration the spirit of section 205 Cr.P.C in its right direction. He relied in the case of Puneet Dalmia v. Central Bureau of Investigation, Hyderabad, (2020) 12 SCC 695, particularly paragraph nos.2, 2.1, 2.2. 4.3 and 5 of the said judgment wh....
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.... appellant preferred a petition before the High Court. By the impugned judgment [Puneeth Dalmia v. State, 2018 SCC OnLineHyd 1903] and order, the High Court has dismissed the said petition and has confirmed the order passed by the learned trial court rejecting the application submitted by the appellant and has refused the exemption from personal appearance of the appellant before the learned trial court. Hence, the present appeal. 4.3. Now, so far as the reliance placed by the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant upon the decisions of this Court in Bhaskar Industries Ltd. [Bhaskar Industries Ltd. v. Bhiwani Denim & Apparels Ltd., (2001) 7 SCC 401 : 2001 SCC (Cri) 1254] and Rameshwar Yadav [Rameshwar Yadav v. State of Bihar, (2018) 4 SCC 608 : (2018) 2 SCC (Cri) 585] is concerned, it is submitted by the learned Additional Solicitor General that the said decisions shall not be applicable to the facts of the case on hand looking to the graveness and seriousness of the offences involved. It is submitted that in Bhaskar Industries Ltd. [Bhaskar Industries Ltd. v. Bhiwani Denim & Apparels Ltd., (2001) 7 SCC 401 : 2001 SCC (Cri) 1254], it was a case for the offence under....
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....arsh on account of a variety of reasons, the court can grant relief to such an accused in the matter of facing the prosecution proceedings. It is observed and held by this Court in the aforesaid decision that the normal rule is that the evidence shall be taken in the presence of the accused. However, even in the absence of the accused, such evidence can be taken but then his counsel must be present in the court, provided he has been granted exemption from attending the court. 5. He submitted that the case of Bhaskar Industries Ltd. v. Bhiwani Denim and Apparels Ltd. and Others, (2001) 7 SCC 401, was considered in the case of Puneet Dalmia(supra), wherein true spirit of section 205 Cr.P.C has been explained by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. He further submitted that identical was the situation before the Kerala High Court in the case of Moosa Pattupara v. the State of Kerala, 2022 SCC OnLine Ker 915 and Arun Baby v. The State of Kerala, 2021 SCC OnLine Ker 2415. Further he relied in the case of Riaz Khan Faridi v. The State of Jharkhand through Central Bureau of Investigation and analogous case in Cr.M.P.No.2557 of 2016 and Cr.Revision No.1422 of 2016 decided by the judgment dated 09.0....
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....India and Others, 2020 SCC OnLine SC 929 while upholding the various provisions of the PMLA Act including section 45 of the PMLA Act held that the provision in the form of section 45 of the PMLA Act as applicable post amendment of 2018, is reasonable and has direct nexus with the purposes and object sought to be achieved by the 2002 Act and does not suffer from any vice of arbitrariness or unreasonableness. He submitted that for exemption of appearance before the court under section 205 Cr.P.C, moreso, in view of allegation and the materials on the basis of which the prima facie case is found to be made out against the petitioner, he is otherwise not entitled for privilege of bail and there is no question of allowing the petition under section 205 Cr.P.C. On this ground, he submitted that the petition is fit to be dismissed. 7. In view of the above submissions of the learned counsels appearing on behalf of the parties, the Court has gone through the materials on record. Admittedly, the petitioner has been summoned by the learned court in ECIR 05/2021 in which the petition in the nature of Misc. Criminal Application No.362 of 2022 was filed under section 205 Cr.P.C which was reject....
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....n accused without warrant, subject to the fulfillment of conditions under section 19 and subject to the conditions enshrined under this section.] 8. On perusal of the proviso of section 45 of the PMLA Act, it transpires that if the allegation is of money laundering of a sum of rupees less than rupees one crore, the learned special court can release on bail if the person is of age of 16 years or a woman or sick or infirm. In the case in hand, it has been submitted that the petitioner has suffered from Covid-19 twice and he is having ailments and on that ground, he has filed a petition before the learned court. In the petition filed under section 205 Cr.P.C before the learned court and certified copy of which is on the record, it has been disclosed in paragraph no.12 that the petitioner undertakes in it that he will not dispute his identify during trial if he is allowed exemption. The undertaking in that particular paragraph is also there to the effect that he will appear in person as and when deemed fit by the learned court. It has been stated that the petitioner will not hide his identity or dispute the same. In the petition here it has been disclosed that the petitioner will also....
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....ence would itself inflict enormous suffering or tribulations to him, and the comparative advantage would be less: paragraph no.14 of the said judgment is quoted hereinbelow: 14. The normal rule is that the evidence shall be taken in the presence of the accused. However, even in the absence of the accused such evidence can be taken but then his counsel must be present in the court, provided he has been granted exemption from attending the court. The concern of the criminal court should primarily be the administration of criminal justice. For that purpose the proceedings of the court in the case should register progress. Presence of the accused in the court is not for marking his attendance just for the sake of seeing him in the court. It is to enable the court to proceed with the trial. If the progress of the trial can be achieved even in the absence of the accused the court can certainly take into account the magnitude of the sufferings which a particular accused person may have to bear with in order to make himself present in the court in that particular case. 9. The purpose of exemption under section 205 Cr.P.C is that the order of the learned magistrate should be such which d....