TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (9) TMI 935
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....nd has submitted that he was arrested on the 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....
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....a fact that investigation is yet to be completed. The 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 oppo....
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....rted in 2023 SCC OnLine Del 3176 11. Pavana Dibbur vs Enforcement Directorate reported in 2023 SCC OnLine SC 1586 12. Kashmira 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....
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....ified. An amount of Rs. 3.25 crores was collected by Shri Kuntal Ghosh from Sri Tapas Kumar Mondal for the purpose. The said fact is revealed from the statement of Tapas Kumar Mondal recorded under section 50 of the 2002 Act. The whatsapp chats extracted 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 whic....
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....vs Aditya Tripathi reported in 2023 SCC OnLine SC 619 19. Saumya Chaurasia vs Enforcement Directorate reported in 2023 SCC OnLine SC 1674 20. Pavana Dibbur vs Enforcement Directorate reported in 2023 SCC OnLine SC 1586 15) In reply, the petitioner has submitted that he was not named in the first and second complaints filed on 18th May, 2023 and 12th January 2024 respectively. 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 cred....
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....e petitioner to file a fresh application before this Court in view of subsequent events having taken place. By the term "subsequent events" the petitioner has meant that all the relied upon documents ("in short RUDs) were not made over to him for rebuttal of the presumption under section 24A of the 2002 Act. Also, investigation qua the petitioner has concluded but charge is yet to be framed. 20) It 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 counse....
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....decisions, this Court has held as hereunder:- "In the instant case, there was not even an FIR by the State Police or the State agencies and it was on the direction of the Hon'ble High Court that the CBI initiated the investigation wherein the main thrust of allegations related to the primary teachers' job which have been purchased in lieu of huge amount of money and extraneous consideration extended to the ineligible candidates to get appointment as Assistant Teachers 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 ....
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....ial Courts and the High Courts should recognize the principle that bail is rule and jail is exception." 26) Section 436A of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides for release of an accused upon his detention during the period of investigation, inquiry or trial under the Code for offence under any law (not being an offence for which the punishment of death has been specified as one of the punishments under the law) for a period extending up to one-half of the maximum period of imprisonment specified 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 an....
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....e and again, prolonged incarceration before being pronounced guilty of an offence should not be permitted to become punishment without trial and in such a case Article 21 applies irrespective of the seriousness of the crime. 31) With regard to the apprehension of the petitioner influencing the witnesses, stringent conditions can be imposed upon him to address the concern. The attendance of the petitioner may also be secured by imposing stringent conditions. The petitioner has no criminal antecedent to his credit 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 p....