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TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (2) TMI 42
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....m lenders for misappropriation and criminal breach of trust, manipulation of books of accounts through fictitious accounts and conversion of property against unknown public servants, for the offences punishable under Sections 120-B read with Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 IPC and Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. (ii) The allegations levelled against the said Companies are that credit facilities were extended to those Companies to the tune of several crores at various stages from the year 1998. Later, due to macro-economic conditions, the Companies started facing severe liquidity issues and thereupon, restructure of liabilities was done and similarly short renewal of credit facilities was also made, however, the Companies had defaulted its interest servicing and repayment obligations to member banks and hence, the Companies were classified as Non Performing Asset (NPA) and the loans were recalled and notices were issued for invoking the personal guarantees of Promoters/Guarantors of the Companies and subsequently, the Companies were also liquidated. (iii) Subsequently, Forensic Auditors were appointed to carry out Transaction Audit ....
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....uments whereas the grounds of arrest do not make any mention about the petitioner committing any such offence except acquiring the windmills of Surana Green Power Limited and Surana Corporation Limited in a public auction conducted by State Bank of India by obtaining loans from Sayso Exim Pvt. Ltd. M/s.Natural Coal Pvt. Ltd., and M/s.Tribhovan Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. iii) The petitioner had not approached any Banks seeking financial assistance and cheated the banks and hence, he is not connected with the alleged proceeds of crime and thus, he has not committed any offence under the PML Act. iv) Merely because windmills were acquired by Bell Tower Enterprises LLP through the funds arranged from other entities viz., M/s.Sayso Exim Pvt. Ltd. M/s.Natural Coal Pvt. Ltd., and M/s.Tribhovan Enterprises Pvt. Ltd, which had also been repaid, the petitioner has been falsely implicated in the case of money laundering without proving mens rea on the part of the petitioner. v) The petitioner is not an accused either in the private complaint lodged by the banks, FIRs registered by the CBI nor in the ECIRs registered by the respondent. Merely based on the statements of witnesses, which are su....
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....of the Court at this stage is not to weigh the evidence meticulously but to arrive at a finding on the basis of broad probabilities. Further, the Court is required to record a finding as to the possibility of the accused committing a crime which is an offence under the Act after grant of bail." 5. The respondent has filed a detailed counter narrating the role of the petitioner in the offence and referring to the same, Mr.N.Ramesh, learned Special Public Prosecutor for ED cases would submit his arguments as under:- i) The total amount misappropriated by the three Companies viz., Surana Industries Limited, Surana Corporation Limited and Surana Power Limited is to the tune of Rs.3986.08 Crores. ii) The investigation conducted revealed that the above Companies, through its Directors/Promoters and other officials have indulged in manipulation of book of accounts, indulging in paper transactions with shell companies to inflate the turnover of companies in order to get more credit facilities from the banks and thereafter, siphoning off the funds from the Companies accounts through those shell Companies for personal gains and thus indulged in the offence of money laundering. All the D....
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.... Group of Companies to the interlinked companies, he did not cooperate in the investigation to identify the proceeds of crime and establish the money trail. ix) By projecting himself as the legal owner of Bell Tower Enterprises LLP, the petitioner is not only trying to protect Shri Dinesh Chand Surana but also to project the properties in the name of Bell Tower Enterprises LLP as untainted properties and thus, it is a classic case of money laundering wherein all ingredients of the offence of money laundering viz., "placement", "layering" i.e., moving of funds to other institutions to conceal origin and "integration" i.e., funds used to acquire assets. x) During the course of investigation, a number of witnesses have spoken to the effect that the petitioner is a benami of Shri Dinesh Chand Surana and exclusively, Shri K.E.Devarajan, Group Chief Accounts Officer cum Non Executive Director of Surana Industries Limited has stated that Bell Tower Enterprises LLP was created by Shri Dinesh Chand Surana with the sole purpose of getting the windmills of Surana Green Energy Limited and Surana Corporation Limited from the bank and funds were also routed through the shell companies under ....
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....of crime were marked with M/s.Kawarlal & Co., and on enquiry, Shri.Ramlal, Proprietor of M/s.Kawarlal & Co had admitted that he was selling his properties to Shri Dinesh Chand Surana only, but, received the sale consideration from M/s.Sayso Exim Pvt. Ltd., M/s.Thribhovan Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., and M/s.Natural Coal Pvt. Ltd and the said Shri.Ramlal had some transactions with Bell Tower Enterprises LLP and he had stated that he had taken some unsecured loan as well as given loan to Bell Tower LLP as requested by Shri.Dinesh Chand Surana. xv) The above factual aspects reveal that the petitioner, being a money lender, had abetted Shri Dinesh Chand Surana in exercise of money laundering. xvi) Though the petitioner has been in very active connivance with the main accused in the offence of money laundering, he is not revealing the true facts during his statements and hence, in the event of his release on bail, he would try to hamper and tamper with the ongoing investigation and frustrate the tracing of proceeds of crime. xvii) The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 is a standalone Act and is not subservient to the action taken by the Law Enforcement Agency administering the Sc....
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....o revenue generation, share capital contribution and profitability of Surana GOC, based on which, public sector banks have lend monies to SIL, SCL & SPL and the total adjudicated financial liability of the three companies is Rs.10,238 Crores. The investigation has revealed various counts of siphoning of funds, diversion of funds and creation of assets utilizing siphoned out funds. The Companies had floated various shell, puppet Companies, Partnerships and Proprietorship by making its own employees as Directors, Partners and Proprietors respectively inside and outside India to siphon off crores of money to cause loss to the lending banks. 9. The investigation had revealed that the petitioner being a benami of the main accused Shri Dinesh Chand Surana had abetted him in the offence of money laundering and thereby, he was arrested on 12.7.2022 and remanded to judicial custody on 13.7.2022. Aggrieved against that, the petitioner has come up with the present bail petition. 10. The petitioner pleads total ignorance about the money laundering and he claims to have lack of knowledge and acumen. He takes a stand that he has nothing to do with the Group of Companies and he had been made to....
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....kely to commit any offence while on bail: Provided that a person who is under the age of sixteen years or is a woman or is sick or infirm, may be released on bail, if the special court so directs: Provided further that the Special Court shall not take cognizance of any offence punishable under section 4 except upon a complaint in writing made by- (i) the Director; or (ii) any officer of the Central Government or State Government authorised in writing in this behalf by the Central Government by a general or a special order made in this behalf by that Government." 15. If the court finds a prima facie case against the accused, it cannot come to a satisfaction that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accused is not guilty of such offence and that he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail as specified in Section 45(1)(ii) of the PML Act. 16. The petitioner claims to be an illiterate without adequate acumen and financial back up to run the Companies and hence and he is merely a name lender and he had not abetted in commission of offence with mens rea. An overall analysis of the stand taken by both sides, it appears that the petitioner intends to take ad....
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....5 2,10,00,000 Sayso Exim 12 9.4.2015 2,80,23,000 Surana Industries Ltd. 13 9.4.2015 2,80,23,000 Vijay Raj Surana 14 10.4.2015 2,14,12,000 Surana Industries Ltd. 15 10.4.2015 2,14,12,000 Vijay Raj Surana 16 10.4.2015 51,42,000 Surana Industries Ltd. 17 10.4.2015 51,42,000 Vijay Raj Surana (B) M/s.Sayso Exim Pvt. Ltd. Sl. No. Date of transaction Debit amount Credit amount Particulars 1 3.10.2015 2,14,08,500 Surana Industries Ltd 2 3.10.2015 2,14,10,000 Surana Corporation Ltd 3 8.10.2015 2,99,99,000 Surana Industries Ltd 4 8.10.2015 3,00,00,000 Surana Corporation Ltd 5 8.10.2015 2,99,99,000 Surana Industries Ltd 6 8.10.2015 2,99,99,500 Surana Corporation Ltd 7 8.10.2015 2,99,99,200 Surana Corporation Ltd 8 8.10.2015 3,00,01,000 To tfr 9 12.10.2015 1,80,00,000 Thribovan 10 12.10.2015 1,20,00,000 Thribovan 11 12.10.2015 1,80,01,000 Surana Corporation Ltd 12 12.10.2015 1,20,00,500 Surana Corporation Ltd 13 13.10.2015 3,00,00,000 Natural Coal ....
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.... Ltd 15 28.9.2015 1,40,00,000 Natural Coal Pvt Ltd. 16 25.9.2015 2,00,09,000 Surana Industries Ltd 17 25.9.2015 2,00,09,000 Natural Coal Pvt Ltd. 18 23.9.2015 3,40,00,000 Surana Industries Ltd 19 23.9.2015 3,20,00,000 Natural Coal Pvt Ltd. 20 13.10.2015 5,12,00,000 Surana Corporation 21 13.10.2015 2,15,40,000 Surana Corporation 22 13.10.2015 2,50,10,000 Surana Corporation 23 12.10.2015 1,20,00,000 Surana Corporation 24 12.10.2015 1,20,00,000 Sayso Exim Pvt. Ltd. 25 23.2.2016 1,31,55,500 Vinayaga Infra 26 23.2.2016 1,31,58,000 Surana Industries Ltd 18. Such being the triangular relationship among the parties insofar as the financial transactions are concerned, it is also seen that many witnesses have spoken about the petitioner acting as dummy of the main accused Shri Dinesh Chand Surana. The investigation so far done by the respondent, prima facie, leads to an inference that it is a classic case of money laundering by round tripping of money. Therefore, the stand taken by the respondent that even after commission of the scheduled offence a....