TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (9) TMI 1380
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....l application has been preferred challenging the proceedings being ECIR/KLZO-II/19/2022 under Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 dated 24.6.2022 along with the summons issued by Enforcement Directorate under Sections 50(2) and 50(3) dated 8.6.2023 under the said Act against the petitioner. The prayers which have been advanced in the present revisional application are two- fold. Firstly, relating to the quashing of the ECIR and, secondly, relating to the summons dated 8.6.2023 issued by the Enforcement Directorate. The background of the case relates to an order dated 10.7.2023 passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in SLP (C) No. 11588-11589/2023, which was preferred by the petitioner and the relevant part of the said judgment/order, necessitated for the purpose of the present litigation, is set out as follows: "9 we are inclined not to interfere with the impugned order since the consequence of doing so would be to stifle the investigation at the incipient stage. However, the petitioner is at liberty to pursue all remedies which are available in law, including under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973. In the event that the pe....
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.... Hon'ble the Chief Justice, High Court, Calcutta, wherein it was directed that "The Writ Petitions, all application filed in the writ petitions and any further application/s that may be filed including Review Application/s are assigned to Hon'ble Justice Amrita Sinha." The Learned ASG also pointed out that the order dated 14.7.2023 passed by the Hon'ble Justice Amrita Sinha in WPA 9979 of 2022, which is as follows: "On the adjourned date the learned advocates appearing for the CBI and the ED shall give the details of the Investigating Officers who are investigating the municipal scam case." This Court enquired from the learned ASG as to whether bail application and other related criminal matters should be taken up by the same Hon'ble Judge, who is in seisin, of WPA 9979 of 2022. To this, Learned ASG submitted that according to his understanding of the orders it is the same Hon'ble Judge who is in seisin of WPA 9979 of 2022, who should take up the bail matters relating to this case. There were counter arguments by Dr. Singhvi, Learned Advocate appearing for the petitioner, which need not be gone into. But, it is a fact when earlier bail applications in connection w....
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....e victims of a political vendetta, with the sole intention to harass them for oblique purposes. The Learned Senior Advocate relied upon certain instances which are summarised as follows: Sl. Date Particulars of Incident 1. March, 2019 INSTANCE 1: Petitioner's wife and sister-in-law were detained in Kolkata by Customs Officials. 2. March, 2019 INSTANCE 2: Petitioner's wife threatened with cancellation of her OCI Card. 3. February, 2021 INSTANCE 3: Petitioner's wife and Sister-in-law summoned by CBI in coal scam matter. 4. September 2021 INSTANCE 4: Movement of petitioner's wife monitored by Central Investigating Agency. 5. July 2021 INSTANCE 5: Petitioner and his close aides' phones were targeted by Pegasus spyware. 6. August 2021 INSTANCE 6: Petitioner and his wife summoned to appear in New Delhi by ED, while cause of action for investigation arose in West Bengal. 7. September 2021 INSTANCE 7: Petitioner's personal secretary summoned by ED in New Delhi in coal scam. 8. June 2022 INSTANCE 8: Petitioner and his wife prohibited from travelling abroad seeking medical treatment. 9. February - April....
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.... was challenged before the Hon'ble Supreme Court in SLP(C) 11588-11589/2023, and by order dated 10.7.2023 the Hon'ble Apex Court was pleased to dispose of the SLP by setting aside the cost of Rs. 25 lakhs imposed by the Hon'ble Single Judge granting liberty to the petitioner to take recourse before the Hon'ble High Court, Calcutta including filing petition under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. It was submitted that pursuant to the order dated 18.5.2023, the petitioner was summoned by the CBI at its office at Calcutta on 20.5.2023 by serving 24 hours notice. The petitioner at the relevant point of time was involved in a political rally throughout the State and in the midst of the same, the petitioner had to return to Calcutta. The petitioner made himself available for examination before the CBI office on 20.5.2023. The petitioner thereafter resumed his State wide rally when he was served with another summon on 8.6.2023 by the E.D. to provide voluminous information and documents, which included documents, dated back to 2012 and had nothing to do with the petitioner's speech and his association with Kuntal Ghosh. Vide letter dated 13.6.2023 the petitioner responded to the summons ....
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.....2023, there was no predicate offence allegedly or otherwise against the petitioner, which, therefore, nullifies the purported investigation carried out by the E.D. vis-vis the petitioner. In Parvati Kollur -vs- Directorate of Enforcement, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has held that a person cannot be prosecuted under PMLA Act on any notional basis on the assumption that a scheduled offence has been committed unless a predicate case is registered. It was submitted that considering the facts and circumstances of the instant case as on 13.4.2023 neither there was any complaint registered against the petitioner nor there was any pending enquiry or trial. It was further contended that a Joint reading of Section 2(u) and Section 3 of PMLA Act requires a person to be directly or indirectly involved with proceeds of crime. In the instant case, the petitioner's act of giving public speech has no relevance with any financial transaction/scam/proceeds of crime. Thus, the ED do not have any materials against the petitioner to indicate that there is any alleged money trail leading to the petitioner herein, which justifies the petitioner's stand that the entire investigation reeks of malice and ....
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....n the Hon'ble High Court about its ongoing investigation and also before the Hon'ble Supreme Court in matters pertaining to the alleged education scam coupled with subsequent chargesheets filed in the matter and there has been no mention about the petitioner. However, immediately after the order dated 13.04.2023 and 18.05.2023 was passed by the Hon'ble High Court, the petitioner received the first summons on 08.06.2023 which according to the petitioner, is clearly in furtherance of the High Court order. It was submitted that the clarification by the ED that the petitioner is not called pursuant to the High Court's order but in course of the ongoing investigation, is merely an afterthought for the purposes of implicating the petitioner in the alleged scam without there being any material to show that the petitioner is privy to any information or evidence relating to the proceeds of crime. It was submitted that the Central Agencies are being misused by the Central Government to specifically target and harass the petitioner and his family members as they belong to an opposition political party. Learned senior advocate in order to substantiate his argument relied upon the foll....
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....adanlal Choudhary v. Union of India decided on 27.07.2022 where, the consequence of failure of prosecution for the scheduled offence has been clearly provided in the following terms: "187. .......(d) The offence under Section 3 of the 2002 Act is dependent on illegal gain of property as a result of criminal activity relating to a scheduled offence. It is concerning the process or activity connected with such property, which constitutes the offence of money-laundering. The Authorities under the 2002 Act cannot prosecute any person on notional basis or on the assumption that a scheduled offence has been committed, unless it is so registered with the jurisdictional police and/or pending enquiry/trial including by way of criminal complaint before the competent forum. If the person is finally discharged/acquitted of the scheduled offence or the criminal case against him is quashed by the Court of competent jurisdiction, there can be no offence of money- laundering against him or any one claiming such property being the property linked to stated scheduled offence through him." 9. The result of the discussion aforesaid is that the view as taken by the Trial Court in this....
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....tion 482 CrPC. A three-Judge Bench of this Court in State of Karnataka v. L. Muniswamy [State of Karnataka v. L. Muniswamy, (1977) 2 SCC 699 : 1977 SCC (Cri) 404] held that the High Court is entitled to quash a proceeding if it comes to the conclusion that allowing the proceeding to continue would be an abuse of the process of the court or that the ends of justice require that the proceeding ought to be quashed. In para 7 of the judgment, the following has been stated: (SCC p. 703) "7. ... In the exercise of this wholesome power, the High Court is entitled to quash a proceeding if it comes to the conclusion that allowing the proceeding to continue would be an abuse of the process of the court or that the ends of justice require that the proceeding ought to be quashed. The saving of the High Court's inherent powers, both in civil and criminal matters, is designed to achieve a salutary public purpose which is that a court proceeding ought not to be permitted to degenerate into a weapon of harassment or persecution. In a criminal case, the veiled object behind a lame prosecution, the very nature of the material on which the structure of the prosecution rests and the like ....
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.... to do the right and to undo a wrong in course of administration of justice on the principle quando lex aliquid alicui concedit, concedere videtur et id sine quo res ipsae esse non potest (when the law gives a person anything it gives him that without which it cannot exist). While exercising powers under the section, the court does not function as a court of appeal or revision. Inherent jurisdiction under the section though wide has to be exercised sparingly, carefully and with caution and only when such exercise is justified by the tests specifically laid down in the section itself. It is to be exercised ex debito justitiae to do real and substantial justice for the administration of which alone courts exist. Authority of the court exists for advancement of justice and if any attempt is made to abuse that authority so as to produce injustice, the court has power to prevent abuse. It would be an abuse of process of the court to allow any action which would result in injustice and prevent promotion of justice. In exercise of the powers court would be justified to quash any proceeding if it finds that initiation/continuance of it amounts to abuse of the process of court or quashing o....
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....C to quash the proceeding under Category 7 as enumerated in State of Haryana v. Bhajan Lal...." Reliance was placed on Haji Iqbal alias Bala Through S.P.O.A. -Vs. - State of U.P. & Ors. Reported in 2023 SCC OnLine SC 946 and the attention of the Court was drawn to the following paragraphs: "15. At this stage, we would like to observe something important. Whenever an accused comes before the Court invoking either the inherent powers under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) or extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution to get the FIR or the criminal proceedings quashed essentially on the ground that such proceedings are manifestly frivolous or vexatious or instituted with the ulterior motive for wreaking vengeance, then in such circumstances the Court owes a duty to look into the FIR with care and a little more closely. We say so because once the complainant decides to proceed against the accused with an ulterior motive for wreaking personal vengeance, etc., then he would ensure that the FIR/complaint is very well drafted with all the necessary pleadings. The complainant would ensure that the averments made in the FIR/complaint are ....
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....ook into the materials to assess what the complainant has alleged and whether any offence is made out even if the allegations are accepted in toto. 6. In R.P. Kapur v. State of Punjab, AIR 1960 SC 866 : 1960 Cri LJ 1239, this Court summarised some categories of cases where inherent power can and should be exercised to quash the proceedings : (AIR p. 869, para 6) (i) where it manifestly appears that there is a legal bar against the institution or continuance e.g. want of sanction; (ii) where the allegations in the first information report or complaint taken at its face value and accepted in their entirety do not constitute the offence alleged; (iii) where the allegations constitute an offence, but there is no legal evidence adduced or the evidence adduced clearly or manifestly fails to prove the charge. 7. In dealing with the last category, it is important to bear in mind the distinction between a case where there is no legal evidence or where there is evidence which is clearly inconsistent with the accusations made, and a case where there is legal evidence which, on appreciation, may or may not support the accusations. When exercising ju....
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...."That the Petitioner Abhishek Banerjee was summoned on 08.06.2023 in the Primary Teachers Recruitment Scam (ECIR/KLZO- II/19/2022 dated 24.06.2022) for his appearance on 13.06.2023. The ED recorded the ECIR in the matter on the basis of the CBI FIR RC 06 of 2022 dated 09.06.2022 for illegalities and irregularities in the selection and appointment of primary teachers. The said selection and appointment of teachers was done on the basis of Teachers Eligibility Test (TET- 2014) exam. That the investigation into this scam started only with the registration of the FIR by CBI ACB Kolkata and thereafter recording of ECIR by the ED for investigation into the offence of money laundering. During the course of the investigation of this case under PMLA, a Prosecution Complaint against 8 accused persons including Shri Partha Chatterjee and Ms. Arpita Mukherjee was filed on 19.09.2022 before the Hon'ble Special Court (PMLA), Calcutta. Further, the 1st Supplementary Prosecution Complaint against 6 accused persons and entities including Shri Manik Bhattacharya, MLA and the Ex-President of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, Shri Tapas Kumar Mondal and others was filed in the Teachers Re....
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....ummons dated 08.06.2023 issued to him for appearing before the ED on 13.06.2023 in so far as it relates to him quashed. It is pertinent to mention that Petitioner did not comply with the summons and had instead sought to know the scope and purport of the investigation conducted by ED vide his letter dated 13.06.2023. The Petitioner was informed vide letter dated 14.06.2023 that the summons was issued for making inquiry into the money trail of proceeds of crime generated in the Primary Teachers Recruitment Scam under the provisions of PMLA. The matter was first taken up on 20.07.2023 by the Hon'ble High Court of Calcutta wherein it has been observed that the documents are to be placed before the court for assessment in respect of materials appearing against the petitioner. In this respect, attention of the Hon'ble High Court of Calcutta was invited towards the copy of the 4th Supplementary Prosecution Complaint dated 28.07.2023 filed by the ED against Sujay Krishna Bhadra and other before the Ld. Special Court (PMLA). It is pertinent to mention that the present matter has already travelled to the Hon'ble Supreme Court wherein the instant petitioner had chal....
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....e masses of West Bengal and the Panchayat elections which got over on 08.07.2023. Thereafter, the Petitioner left for USA from 26.07.2023 to 20.08.2023 for a post-surgery medical review. It appears that the Petitioner is hellbent on not cooperating with the investigation and is merely finding ways to avoid facing the investigation in the biggest scam of West Bengal in terms of candidates being fleeced and cheated by politicians and their agents. It appears that the Petitioner wants to fix the date, time, venue and the manner of investigation as per his convenience. The said actions of the Petitioner are completely contrary to the judgement of the Hon ble Supreme Court in the case of Dukhishyam Benupani, AD, ED (FERA) Vs. Arun Kumar Bajoria in Appeal (Crl) 1116 of 1997 wherein it has been held that it must be left to the investigating agency to decide the venue, the timings and the questions and the manner of putting such questions to persons involved in offences. That it is also pertinent to mention that the accused Shri Sujay Krishna Bhadra having a close financial association with the Petitioner Abhishek Banerjee is also trying his best to somehow avoid and scuttle the i....
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....n the progress of investigation in this case. The Hon'ble High Court has directed to submit a further report on 21.09.2023 and submit the details of the M/s Leaps and Bounds Pvt Ltd of which the instant Petitioner is the CEO. The Hon'ble High Court on earlier occasions too had directed to leave no stone unturned to find out the money trail and the beneficiaries. That a summons under the PMLA is issued for collection of information and evidence. That the persons summoned need not necessarily be prosecuted and it is only after the investigation into the affairs of the persons summoned vis-a-vis the offence of money laundering that a decision regarding their prosecution or otherwise is taken. That a total of 184 summons have been issued in the Primary Teachers Recruitment Scam so far for collection of information and evidence. That a total of 5 Prosecution Complaints (1 PC and 4 Supplementary PC have been filed in the case so far with 25 persons and entities being made accused. That only 9 persons (individuals) have been prosecuted so far in the case out of the total of more than 100 persons examined. Therefore, the apprehension of the Petitioner and criminal....
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....ere is no need to formally register an ECIR, unlike registration of an FIR by the jurisdictional police in respect of cognizable offence under the ordinary law. There is force in the stand taken by the ED that ECIR is an internal document created by the department before initiating penal action or prosecution against the person involved with process or activity connected with proceeds of crime. Thus, ECIR is not a statutory document, nor there is any provision in 2002 Act requiring Authority referred to in Section 48 to record ECIR or to furnish copy thereof to the accused unlike Section 154 of the 1973 Code. The fact that such ECIR has not been recorded, does not come in the way of the authorities referred to in Section 48 of the 2002 Act to commence inquiry/investigation for initiating civil action of attachment of property being proceeds of crime by following prescribed procedure in that regard." It was contended that the prayer for quashing by any person other than an accused named in ECIR/FIR/Complaint is not maintainable. The reliance in this regard was placed in the judgement of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Hukum Chand Garg & Anr. Vs. The State of Uttar Pradesh & Ors. [or....
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....rsons, it is for them and them alone to raise all such questions and challenge the proceedings initiated against them at the appropriate time before the proper forum and not for third parties under the garb of public interest litigants." At the stage of summons a person do not qualify as a 'person aggrieved' and as such the present petition is premature to that effect reliance was placed on Kirit Shrimankar Vs. Union of India & Ors. in WP (Crl.) No. 109/2013, the relevant paragraph of which is set out as follows : "In the course of hearing of the Writ Petition, we find that the writ petition was premature. The petitioners seek for the prayers as have been couched in the writ petition where the petitioners pray for issuance of mandamus to determine the 1 question of law, as to whether the allegation of commission of offence under Section 135 of the Customs Act, 1962 would construe a bailable offence with further directions to comply with Sections 154, 155 and 157 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to investigate a cognizable/non-cognizable offence, if any, under Section 135 of the Customs Act. In fact, when we perused the averments contained in the Writ Petition the provo....
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....h of which is set out as follows : "6. I find substantial force in the preliminary objection regarding maintainability raised by the learned ASG. Exhibit P11 summons is issued under Section 50(2) of the Act. A person issued with summons is bound to attend in person or through authorised agents, as the officer issuing the summons directs, and is bound to state the truth upon any subject respecting which he is examined or makes statements and to produce such documents as may be required. As held by the Apex Court in Kirit Shrimankar, no cause of action arises merely for reason of a person being called upon to state the truth or to make statements and produce documents. I am unable to accept the submission of the learned counsel for the petitioner that the cause of action is based on the repeated summoning of the petitioner in spite of his illness, which gave rise to the reasonable apprehension that the petitioner will be forced to give statements against his will. I find no basis for such apprehension inasmuch as the date for appearance was changed by the 2nd respondent on three occasions, acceding to the request made by the petitioner. Having commenced an investigation or p....
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....s : "16. Thus, the position of law is that if any person is summoned under Section 69 of the CGST Act, 2017 for the purpose of recording of his statement, the provisions of Section 438 of Criminal Procedure Code, 1908 cannot be invoked. We say so as no First Information Report gets registered before the power of 7 arrest under Section 69(1) of the CGST Act, 2017 is invoked and in such circumstances, the person summoned cannot invoke Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for anticipatory bail. The only way a person summoned can seek protection against the pre-trial arrest is to invoke the jurisdiction of the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. Undoubtedly, this is exactly what the respondents did in the present case. What the respondents sought by filing two criminal applications under Article 226 of the Constitution before the High Court was the direction to the appellant herein not to arrest them in exercise of the power conferred by Section 69(1) of the GST Act, 2017. This, in essence, is key to prayer for anticipatory bail. However, as we have explained aforesaid, at the stage of summons, the person summoned cannot invoke Section 438 of th....
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....losing no offence but the case is at a stage where further investigation into the offence is sought to be thwarted by interference in exercise of the extraordinary jurisdiction. Apart from reiterating the caution administered way back in Khwaja Nazir Ahmad case [AIR 1944 PC 18 : 1944 LR 71 IA 203, 213] that unless an extraordinary case of gross abuse of power is made out by those in charge of investigation as noted in S.M. Sharma v. Bipen Kumar Tiwari [(1970) 1 SCC 653, 657 : 1970 SCC (Cri) 258 : (1970) 3 SCR 946] the Court should be quite loath to interfere at the stage of investigation, a field of activity reserved for police and the executive...." It was submitted that the petitioner has not appeared once before the Investigating Officer in the primary recruitment scam and has only tried to avoid the investigation at any cost by filing various applications before the courts. The petitioner was last summoned on 08.06.2023 to appear on 13.06.2023 along with the documents. However the petitioner decided not to appear on the said date on the grounds on being busy with campaigning for the Panchayat elections in the State of West Bengal. It was stated that the petitioner did not ev....
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....017) 2 SCC 779; Hema Mishra v. State of U. P, ( 2014) 4 SCC 453; Neeharika Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. vs. State of Maharashtra and ors., 2021 SCC OnLine SC 315; the order dated 5.12.2022 passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in SLP (Crl) 9092 of 2022 titled as Vijaykumar Gopichand Ramachandani vs. Amar Sadhuram Mulchandani and ors.; The State of Gujarat etc. vs. Choodamani Parmeshwaram Iyer & Anr. etc SLP(Crl) 4212-4213/2023. The learned Additional Solicitor General on the basis of the aforesaid judgements and issues stressed by submitting that the petitioner is attempting to obtain an order of no coercive action as he is apprehending arrest. However, the grounds so assigned in the application are lacking merits for any interference by this Court. Mr. Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, learned senior Advocate appearing for the affected parties submitted that there has been a recruitment scam which relates to the appointment of teachers. The investigation commenced on the direction passed by a Co-ordinate Bench exercising its powers under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. The said investigation presently is a Court monitored investigation wherein Special Investigating Team has be....
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....tical vendetta. It was further submitted on behalf of the petitioner that the present application under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure has been filed after liberty was granted by the Hon'ble Supreme Court by its order dated 10.07.2023 and as such, the issue dealt with in Raghav Bahl (supra) relating to the application being premature is not applicable to the present case. Paragraph 435 in the case of Vijay Madanlal Choudahry and ors. (supra) has clearly demarcated between police officials and Enforcement Directorate officials and, therefore, the judgement of State of Bihar and Anr. vs. J.A.C Saldhana and ors.(supra) which restricts the powers of the police to investigate do not apply in the facts and circumstances of the present case. The judgement of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Dukhishyam Benupani, Asst. Director, Enforcement Directorate vs. Arun Kumar Bajoria (supra) relied upon by the Enforcement Directorate was distinguished by the petitioner on the facts that the said case related to anticipatory bail while the present application is being considered under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It was also submitted that there being distinction betwe....
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....he Investigating Officer has to pass through the judicial scrutiny of a Magistrate at the stage of taking cognisance. Although the accused person has no right to be heard at that stage but in case the accused person has any grouse against the Investigating Officer or with the method of investigation he can bring to the notice of the Magistrate his grievances which can be looked into by the Magistrate. When the police report under Section 173 CrPC has to go through the judicial scrutiny it is not open to the High Court to find fault with the same on the ground that certain documents were not taken into consideration by the Investigating Officer. We do not, therefore, agree with the High Court that the FIR and the investigation is vitiated because of the mala fide on the part of the informant and the Investigating Officer. We may, however, notice the factual matrix on the basis of which the High Court has reached the findings of mala fide against the informant and the Investigating Officer....." Additionally reliance was placed on State of Maharashtra -Vs. - Ishwar Piraji Kalpatri & Ors. reported in (1996) 1 SCC 542 which is as follows: "22. In fact, the question of mala ....
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....herein the Hon'ble Supreme Court while noting the observations in Bhajan Lal (Supra) has refused to quash proceedings on the ground of mala fides. Dr. Singhvi in order to refute the contentions advanced on behalf of the E.D. relied upon the following factual circumstances which in a tabular form was placed in his written notes of arguments. The same is set out as follows: Sl. 1. Date March, 2023 INCIDENT OF MALICE IN THE PRESENT INVESTIGATION INSTANCE 1: One of the accused in the alleged teacher recruitment scam, being Kuntal Ghosh, had lodged complaints before the Special Court, CBI, Alipore and the Hastings Police Station, complaining of custodial torture by the opposite party as well as the CBI to name the petitioner herein in connection with the illegal activities of the alleged teacher recruitment scam. 2. April, 2023 INSTANCE 2: The Opposite Party has traversed well beyond the limited scope of investigation as directed by this Hon'ble Court vide order dated 13.04.2023 as it has initiated a fishing and roving enquiry pursuant to the aforesaid order which is unconnected to any linkage between the speech delivered by the Petitioner and Ku....
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....is involved in the alleged scam which runs into crores of rupees without any investigation, trial or judgment passed by a competent court. ii. Such publication not only jeopardizes the pending investigation but it is de hors the established position of law. iii. The said Press Release is specifically intended to assassinate Petitioner's character and discredit his political actions. iv. The said Press Release also encourages media trial and create mass hysteria against the Petitioner. v. Hence, such press release is not only misleading and frustrates the pending investigation, but it also intends to demonize the petitioner and garner public sentiment against him. 7. 26.08.2023 INSTANCE NO.7 i. The Opposite Party's conduct is more suspicious as it didn't inform the Petitioner about the illegal downloading of files for almost 4 days since the raid. ii. However, when an employee of Leaps & Bounds Pvt. Ltd. discovered the said illegal downloads in the computer it immediately lodged a criminal complaint before the Police. iii. Thereafter, the Opposite Party deemed it fit to send an email dated 26.08.2023 justifying its illegal acts and stated th....
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....es "Guidelines for Documentation and Seizure of Digital Evidences" at page 88 in paragraph 8.2 by stating that: "Before seizing any of the digital evidence, their hash value must be calculated using forensic tools such as cyber check or duplicator or anything else. There will be a report generated by these tools which can be attached along with the panchnama" ii. It is evident from Pachamama dated 22.08.2023, that the Opposite Party has deliberately and illegally chosen not to calculate the Hash Value of the seized electronic device/hard disk drive that is presently in custody of the opposite party, contrary to DEI Manual. iii. Hence, the Opposite Party has deliberately created the scope for tampering and/or introduced malware and/or altering the date contained in the hard disk drive. 10. 10.09.2023 INSTANCE NO. 10 i. While Opposite Party has failed to show any material against the petitioner or even the case diary, but while the instant criminal revisional application is sub-judice before this Hon'ble Court, the Opposite Party has served the petitioner with a fresh Summons dated 10.09.2023 under Section 50 (2) and (3) of the PMLA. ii. As per the s....
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....ir grievances, however, they were not getting the desired result. Therefore, they approached him or party officials through letters; that he has relationship with Shri Abhishek Banerjee who was the president of Trinamool Youth Congress so they thought that he (Sujay Krishna Bhadra) could pursue their matter to the authority concerned." The petitioner also took out an application being CRAN 1 of 2023 wherein he submitted to be the ex-director of Leaps & Bounds Pvt. Ltd. and continued there till 31.01.2014, subsequently he has been serving as the CEO of the said company. In the application it has been contended that a search and seizure operation was carried out on 21.08.2023 (started at 11.35 am) and continued till 22.08.2023 (till 6.00 am). The said application was taken out alleging that in respect of the computer systems whose Hard Disk Drives were not seized by the Opposite Party/E.D., 16 new Microsoft Excel files were downloaded and introduced in the computer system. To that extent a general diary entry was lodged, the hard disk was seized by the Cyber Cell of Kolkata Police and the same were sent to CFSL, Kolkata. The E.D. took a plea that the same was accidental as one ....
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....in WPA 7907 of 2019 with WPA 9979 of 2022 The Hon'ble Justice Amrita Sinha was pleased to hold as follows: "The Enforcement Directorate is directed to file a report with regard to the progress of the investigation in respect of the Chief Executive Officer of the Company." The same Hon'ble Court in an order dated 14.09.2023 was pleased to pass the following directions: "The Enforcement Directorate is investigating the offences under the PMLA. Let the following documents be placed before this Court on the adjourned date. 1. The list of assets of M/S. Leaps and Bounds Private Limited from the date of its inception. 2. The list of assets of all the Directors, the CEO and all the members of M/S. Leaps and Bounds Private Limited. 3. The Memorandum of Association of M/S. Leaps and Bounds Private Limited. 4. The Articles of Association of M/S. Leaps and Bounds Private Limited. 5. The date of registration of M/S. Leaps and Bounds Private Limited." In view of the aforesaid order dated 14.09.2023 passed in WPA 7907 of 2019 with WPA 9979 of 2022 there has been complete change of circumstance from the stage when the petitioner....