TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (9) TMI 935
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.... basis of a letter disclosing an allegation against him that he received Rs. 7,00,000/- from 44 candidates and also the statement recorded under section 50 of the Act of 2002 of one of the co-accused Tapas Kumar Mondal. The petitioner's prayer for bail was turned down by this Court on two occasions in CRM (SB) 82 of 2023 and CRM (SB) 182 of 2023 on 26th June, 2023 and 16th November, 2023 respectively. The petitioner has renewed his prayer for bail on the ground of subsequent developments in the case. 3) The argument canvassed by the petitioner is as follows:- The opposite party has furnished copies of all relied upon documents under section 208 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to the petitioner on 17th June, 2023 as claimed by the opposite party but the TET result sheet of the list of 325 candidates as submitted by Tapas Kumar Mondal were not made over to him. Scrutiny of the said list is necessary in view of the fact that since the result of TET is published through N.I.C. any change made therein shall result in discrepancy in the results published. In the list of 325 candidates, there is reiteration of the names of 100 candidates which brings down the list to 225. The Enforcem....
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....e petitioner had a professional career for more than 40 years and his hard-earned money including his retiral benefits have been attached by the opposite party in course of investigation. The petitioner is suffering from several ailments including eye problem which cannot be effectively taken care of while in custody. 6) The letter sent to the petitioner by unemployed youth of North Bengal on 22nd July, 2022 on the anvil of which he was arrested does not contain any allegation against him. Not a single penny was recovered from the possession/house of the petitioner and he was taken into custody only on the basis of the statement of Tapas Kumar Mondal and the letter sent to him. His name has not appeared as recipient of the money in course of investigation. Relying upon section 2(1) (u) of the Act of 2022, the petitioner has submitted that proceeds of crime is the foundation of the offence and no offence has been made out against him under section 3 of the Act. All the documents relied upon by the opposite party were also not supplied to him in order to enable him to defend his cause. The petitioner undertakes to assist the opposite party in unveiling the truth and to co-operate in....
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....ra Singh vs State of Madhya Pradesh reported in (1952) 1 SCC 275: 1952 SCC OnLine SC 19 13. Haricharan Kurmi & Anr. vs State of Bihar reported in 1964 SCC OnLine SC 28 14. Sri Hemant Soren vs Directorate of Enforcement reported in B.A NO. 4892 of 2024 before the Hon'ble High Court at Ranchi-upheld by SC in SLP(Crl) No. 9599/2024 15. K. Govindaraj vs Union of India, reported in W.P No. 5402 of 2024 before the The Hon'ble Division Bench at Madras High Court 16. Kalyan Chandra Sarkar vs Rajesh Ranjan reported in (2004) 7 SCC 528 17. Basanta Panda vs State of Orissa reported in BLAPL NO. 8126 of 2020 18. Vanshika Yadav vs Union of India reported in 2024 INSC 568 19. Union of India vs K.A Najeeb reported in (2021) 3 SCC 713 20. Manish Sisodia vs Directorate of Enforcement reported in 2024 INSC 595 21. Ramkripal Meena vs Directorate of Enforcement reported in SLP(Crl) No. 3205/2024 22. Javed Gulam Nabi Shaikh vs State of Maharashtra reported in Criminal Appeal No. 2787 of 2024 23. Sheikh Javed Iqbal vs State of Uttar Pradesh reported in 2024 INSC 534 24. Ranjitsing Brahmajeetsing Sharma vs State of Maharashtra reported in (2005) 5 SCC 294 25. Vijay Madanlal Chou....
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....racted from the seized mobile phone of the petitioner shows connection between the petitioner and Sujoy Krishna Bhadra who sent details of many TET 2014 candidates to the petitioner from his mobile phone along with other details like mark sheets, admit cards, etc., since 2018. The fact has also been accepted by Sujoy Krishna Bhadra. Learned counsel has taken this Court to the statements of various witnesses including Asfaque Alam, Ruhul Amin, Rajib Kundu, Biswabrata Das, Sudip Ganguly, Panna Lal Bhattacharya, Hira Lal Bhattacharya and wife of Hiral Lal Bhattacharya implicating the petitioner in the alleged offence. In reply to the query of the petitioner as to why the LTI of Hira Lal Bhattacharya was taken in his statement under section 50 despite the fact that he is an Associate Professor, learned counsel for the E.D. has submitted that since Hira Lal Bhattacharya is suffering from parkinsons disease, he put his LTI in his statement which was countersigned by his wife Sanchita Bhattacharjee in whose presence the statement was recorded. 13) Learned counsel has further submitted that though the petitioner has alleged that his arrest was not in conformity with section 19 of the 2002....
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....vely. Placing reliance on paragraph 250 of the authority in Vijay Madan Lal Choudhary (supra), the petitioner has submitted that property in whatever form mentioned in section 2 (1) (v) which is linked to criminal activity relatable to scheduled offence must be recorded as proceeds of crime for the purpose of the 2002 Act. No predicate offence having been made out against the petitioner, offence under the 2002 Act is not attracted against him. The entire allegation against the petitioner is based on statements under section 50 of the Act which cannot be the foundation of any proceeding. 16) Pursuant to an order passed by a co-ordinate Bench of this Court on 29th August, 2023 in W.P.A. 7907 of 2019 with W.P.A. 9979 of 2022 directing the West Bengal Board of Primary Education to verify the credentials of the candidates on the anvil of a list submitted by the Enforcement Directorate and also pursuant to a subsequent order of the said learned Court on 14th September 2023, report in the form of affidavit was submitted by the Board explaining the status of 1894 candidates who qualified for the service and remaining 63 candidates whose break up scores were published in the Board's websit....
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.... appears from a letter issued by the E.D. to the Jail Superintendent, Presidency Correctional Home that a pen-drive containing prosecution compliant, supplementary prosecution complaints and RUDs was received on behalf of the petitioner by the Controller, Presidency Correctional Home on 17th June, 2023. Therefore it is evident that the petitioner was in possession of the relevant documents before both his bail applications were considered. The petitioner filed a prisoner's petition before the learned trial Court on 7th March, 2024 which contains the averments of the petitioner as made out in the present application. 21) The petitioner has alleged that the provision of section 19 (1) of the 2002 Act was not complied with at the time of his arrest. The petitioner or his learned counsel was not informed of the grounds of his arrest and therefore, the arrest is bad in law. The petitioner has placed reliance on several authorities including Pankaj Bansal (supra), Arvind Kejriwal (supra) Madhu Limaye (supra) and Prabir Purkayastha (supra) in this connection. The arrest memo discloses that the petitioner refused to receive the same after going through each page of the grounds of arrest s....
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....achers in primary schools. To that extent the process of selection, the question papers, its evaluation process, which has been alleged to be done in a dubious manner as wrong questions and answer keys were designed in a mode for depriving the eligible candidates. Thus, having regard to the issue relating to which the investigation of the case is being continued, the number of victims being involved, and the accused person being an influential person, whose means, position are beyond question at the State administrative level as also the education department, his release, will have an impact at this stage of the investigation when an outer limit of 31st December, 2023 has been fixed by the Hon'ble Division Bench to conclude the investigation, which is being carried on by the E.D. Having regard to the aforesaid, particularly, with regard to the means, position, the standing of the present petitioner, the gravity of the offence as also the stage of the investigation which is at the final stage, I am of the view that this is not a fit case for the petitioner to be released on bail at this stage." 25) True, the conditions laid down in section 45 of the 2002 Act are the guiding f....
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.... for that offence. Section 4 of the 2002 Act provides for rigourous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three years but which may extend to seven years and is also be liable to fine. Though one-half of the maximum period of detention has not been undergone by the petitioner during investigation, this Court may consider release of the petitioner on bail in view of the petitioner having undergone more than half of the minimum period of imprisonment specified for the offence in exercise of plenary powers of the High Court under Article 21 of the Constitution. It is important to note that Article 21 of the Constitution and section 436A of the Code complement each other and may not be regarded as adversarial. 27) The petitioner is in custody for little less than two years. Charge is yet to be framed. Delay in trial cannot be wholly attributable to the petitioner. The case involves several thousands of pages of documents and a good number of witnesses to be examined. Chance of trial being concluded in near future is bleak. The case is based on documentary evidence which has been collected by the E.D. and is in their custody. Therefore there is no scope for the petitione....
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....dit and no other criminal case except the present one is pending against him. 32) In the authority in Manik Madhukar Sarve and Others v/s. Vitthal Damuji Meher and Others in Criminal Appeal no. 3573 of 2024, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has held that in case of Commission of an economic offence affecting a large number of people, it would be fit for the Court to impose strict additional conditions in granting bail to the accused. The bail of the accused was cancelled by the Hon'ble Court on such ground coupled with the fact that the bail petition was not considered in its proper perspective. The facts and circumstances of the said case can be distinguished from that of the present case. 33) It is pertinent to refer to a judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Criminal Appeal no. 2790 of 2024 wherein the Hon'ble Court has dealt with the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution. The relevant portion of the judgment is set out:- "This Court has, time and again, emphasized that right to life and personal liberty enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India is overarching and sacrosanct. A constitutional Court cannot be restrained from grantin....