TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (4) TMI 1205
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....al Code, 1860 against Chandan Mondal @ Ranjan, unknown office bearers of West Bengal Board of Primary Education and others for the alleged offences committed by unknown office bearers of West Bengal Board of Primary Education in conducting the selection process of Assistant teachers. As sections 7, 7A & 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 fall under Paragraph 8 part 'A' of the schedule to the PMLA, 2002 and Sections 120B, 420, 467 & 471 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 1988 fall under Paragraph 1 part 'A' of the schedule to the PMLA, 2002 are the Scheduled Offence in terms of Section 2(1) (y) of PMLA, 2002, enquiries were initiated under PMLA, 2002 against the accused persons and their associates after recording ECIR /KLZOII/19/2022 dated 24.06.2022 against Chandan Mondal @ Ranjan, unknown office bearers of West Bengal Board of Primary Education and others. It was alleged that the various orders of the Hon'ble High Court of Calcutta make it clear that the entire process of recruitment of assistant primary teachers were done illegally and for extraneous considerations. The role of all the influential persons were put under scrutiny by the Hon'ble High....
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....ta Mukherjee were found involved in the commission of the offence of money laundering, by indulging in criminal conspiracy for illegally giving jobs for the post of Asst teachers in primary schools against bribe amount and generating huge proceeds of crime and for having knowingly indulged, assisted, involved and being a party in the process and activity connected to the proceeds of crime including its concealment, possession, acquisition, use, projecting as well as claiming the said proceeds of crime as untainted property deriving illegal monetary gains. The accused Shri Partha Chatterjee and Ms. Arpita Mukherjee were arrested for the offence of Money Laundering on 23.07.022 on reasons to believe that they were involved in the offence of Money Laundering. Shri Partha Chatterjee and Ms. Arpita Mukherjee were arrested on 23.07.2022 from their residential premises situated at 9/4A, Khanpur Road, Naktala, Kolkata-700047 and Diamond City South, Tower-2, Flat-1, 58 MG Road, Karunamoyee, Tollygunge, Kolkata-41 respectively under section 19 of the PMLA, 2002 after observing all legal safeguards. Details of Movable property seized: Sl. No. Description of moveable property Value....
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....0 11 20. Singapore Dollar 1000 02 21. Singapore Cents (coins) 20 01 22. Singapore Cents (coins) 50 01 23 The United State of America Dollars 01 12 24. The United State of America Dollars 05 01 25. The United State of America Dollars 10 11 Details of immovable property worth Rs.40,33,48,082/- (including BCM International School). In the prosecution complaint a brief summary of the specific role of the petitioner was assigned, which is set out as follows: S.No Name of the Accused Role in the case 1. Shri Partha Chatterjee (A- 1) D.O.B -06.10.1952, son of Late Shri Bijay Krishna Chatterjee, R/o 9/4A, Khanpur Road, Naktala, Kolkata- 700047, A company namely M/s Ananta Texfab Pvt. Ltd. controlled by Shri Partha Chatterjee and found closely linked with the family members of the accused Shri Partha Chatterjee was registered at that very premises from where the haul of huge cash of Rs. 27.90 crores and gold amounting to Rs. 4.31 crores was seized. Shri Partha Chatterjee had made dummy directors in the said company under his control namely M/s Ananta Texfab Pvt Ltd., M/s Symbiosis Merchants Pv....
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....ukherjee, who was his close associate in laundering the funds generated through the criminal activities relating to the schedule offence. M/s Sentry engineering Pvt. Ltd. and M/s. Echhay Entertainment pvt. Ltd. were also formed for the purpose of laundering the funds by way of depositing the cash in the accounts maintained in the name of companies and subsequently purchasing immovable properties in the name of companies. These companies were also under the control of Shri partha Chatterjee and his close associate Ms Arpita Mukherjee. Investigation revealed that though Partha Chatterjee was not a director in the companies namely M/s Ananta Texfab Pvt. Ltd., M/s Symbiosis Merchants Pvt. Ltd., M/s Viewmore Highrise Pvt. Ltd., M/s Echhay Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. and M/s Sentry Engineering Pvt. Ltd. at the time of contravention of the provisions of PMLA, 2002 but he was incharge and responsible for the day to day affairs and-conduct of the business of the said companies. He was in de-facto control of the companies as is evident from the statement of Ms Arpita Mukherjee, Shri Snehamoy Dutta, Shri Manoj Kumar Kathotia, Shri Kamal Singh Bhutoria, Shri Mrinmoy Malakar, Shri Ranesh Kuma....
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....way of depositing the cash in the accounts maintained in the name of the company and subsequently purchasing immovable properties in the name of company. This company was also under the control of Shri Partha Chatterjee and his close associate Ms Arpita Mukhejee. This corporate entity was solely used in the acquisition, use, possession, and concealment of proceeds of crime with the assistance of other accused persons and entities. Thus, it has committed the offence of Money Laundering as defined under section 3 read with section 70 of PMLA, 2002 and is, therefore, liable to be punished under section 4 of PMLA, 2002. In addition to that, Explanation to Section 3 of PMLA also provides that "the process or activity connected with proceeds of crime is a continuing activity and continues till such time a person is directly or indirectly enjoying the proceeds of crime by its concealment or possession or acquisition or use or projecting it as untainted property or claiming it as untainted property in any manner whatsoever". As revealed from the facts of the case, it continued to be involved in processes and activities connected with said proceeds of crime and continued to be holding....
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.... and concealment of proceeds of crime with the assistance of other accused persons and entities. Thus, it has committed the offence of Money Laundering as defined under section 3 read with section 70 of PMLA, 2002 and is, therefore, liable to be punished under section 4 of PMLA, 2002. In addition to that, Explanation to Section 3 of PMLA also provides that "the process or activity connected with proceeds of crime is a continuing activity and continues till such time a person is directly or indirectly enjoying the proceeds of crime by its concealment or possession or acquisition or use or projecting it as untainted property or claiming it as untainted property in any manner whatsoever". As revealed from the facts of the case, it continued to be involved in processes and activities connected with said proceeds of crime and continued to be holding and projecting the said proceeds of crime as untainted money. In view of the facts and aforesaid legal explanation, it is noticed that it continued to commit offence of money laundering as per Section 3 of PMLA and therefore liable to be punished under Section 4 of PMLA for such continuing activity. 6. M/s Sentry Engineering Pvt. Lt....
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....nation to Section 3 of PMLA also provides that "the process or activity connected with proceeds of crime is a continuing activity and continues till such time a person is directly or indirectly enjoying the proceeds of crime by its concealment or possession or acquisition or use or projecting it as untainted property or claiming it as untainted property in any manner whatsoever". As revealed from the facts of the case, it continued to be involved in processes and activities connected with said proceeds of crime and continued to be holding and projecting the said proceeds of crime as untainted money. In view of the facts and aforesaid legal explanation, it is noticed that it continued to commit offence of money laundering as per Section 3 of PMLA and therefore liable to be punished under Section 4 of PMLA for such continuing activity. 8. M/s APA Utility Services (A8) This is a partnership firm formed on 01.11.2011 with Shri Partha Chatterjee and Ms. Arpita Mukherjee as equal partners and powers to act on behalf of the other. There was no business activity in this firm and it was solely made with the purpose of buying properties from the proceeds derived out of the ....
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....er was shifted from the post of Minister-in-Charge, Education Department, Government of West Bengal towards the end of March, 2021. The properties which have been allegedly seized and has been related to the petitioner are of the year 2012, when the petitioner was not even Minister-inCharge, Education Department, Government of West Bengal. In respect of the seizures which were effected, it has been contended on behalf of the petitioner that the documents recovered and seized from the premises of the petitioner on 22.07.2022 relate to copies of deeds of sale purchased by Ms. Arpita Mukherjee, M/s. Echhay Entertainment Pvt. Ltd and M/s. Sentry Engineering Pvt. Ltd. The recoveries do not relate to the present petitioner. Referring to some of the documents relied upon by the prosecution, learned senior advocate fortifies his argument by submitting that in question no.12 of the statement dated 02.08.2022 the said Ms. Arpita Mukherjee stated that the properties were either in her name or in the name of her company and all the properties were in her possession. It was explained that since she knew the petitioner so the said documents/photocopies were kept in the premises of the petitio....
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....West Bengal" containing Rs.5 lakhs in cash do not establish any proof beyond doubt to connect the seizures with the present petitioner. It has been reiterated that no cash and/or jewellery was seized from the possession of the present petitioner and the aforesaid documents have been relied upon to falsely implicate the petitioner in connection with the instant case. While referring to the statement of Arpita Mukherjee which was recorded under section 50 of the PMLA in respect of the cash, jewellery and the properties, ld. Advocate for the petitioner emphasizes that the statement of a co-accused do not add any importance to the evidence, which can be a sole testimony for implicating the petitioner. There were other statements of said Arpita Mukherjee, which do exonerate the petitioner. However, the prosecution has not emphasized on the same and only highlighted on a single piece of such statement to establish its case of proceeds of crime, which dilutes the case against the present petitioner as the same is based on surmises and conjectures. Ld. Senior advocate for the petitioner has also dealt with the properties in the name of M/s. APA Utility Service....
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....to the period of custody which has been suffered and the quantum of punishment which can be imposed in a case whether the trial would take considerable time to be completed, paragraphs 6, 7 & 8 of Sanjay Agarwal -vs- Directorate of Enforcement reported in 2022 SCC OnLine SC 1748 have been relied upon and the above-mentioned paragraphs are set out below: "6. At this stage, we need not go into the submissions raised on behalf of either side. The fact of the matter is that for an offence where the maximum sentence could be punishable with imprisonment for seven years, the appellant has undergone custody for about a year. 7. It further appears that the investigation is still pending and the matter is not ripe for trial on merits before the appropriate Court. 28 8. Considering the entirety of the circumstances on record and in the peculiar facts, in our view, the appellant is entitled to the relief of bail. We, therefore, proceed to pass following directions: (a) The appellant shall be produced before the concerned Court within three days and the concerned Court shall release the appellant on bail subject to such conditions as the Court may deem it ap....
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.... is the weakest piece of evidence and to that effect reliance was placed on Surinder Kumar Khanna -vs- Directorate of Revenue Intelligence reported in (2018) 8 SCC 271. Emphasis was made on paragraph 13 which is as follows :- "13. In the present case it is accepted that apart from the aforesaid statements of co-accused there is no material suggesting involvement of the appellant in the crime in question. We are thus left with only one piece of material that is the confessional statements of the co-accused as stated above. On the touchstone of law laid down by this Court, such a confessional statement of a co-accused cannot by itself be taken as a substantive piece of evidence against another co-accused and can at best be used or utilised in order to lend assurance to the Court." Substantiating the arguments that when an accused is not involved in the predicate offence he should be granted bail, learned senior advocate relied upon Jai Narayan Sharma -vs- Assistant Director, Directorate of Enforcement in Criminal Appeal No. 2726 of 2023. Reliance was placed on paragraphs 5 and 6 of the said judgement which are set out below :- "5. Considering the role ascribed to....
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....r offences. 12. Third relates to interference with investigation by intimidating witnesses and/or tampering evidence. Investigation in the present case has continued for more than a year. It centers around alleged fake appointment/recommendation letters which have already been seized. Two charge sheets have been filed and it is submitted at the Bar that the third and final charge sheet would be filed shortly in deference to the directions of the Hon'ble Apex Court. Evidence in the present case relates to documents already in the possession of the Investigating Agency and/or statements of public servants. There is remote chance of the petitioner influencing or intimidating such witnesses. In this backdrop it is highly improbable that release of the petitioner on bail would in any way interfere with the progress of investigation and/or intimidate witnesses. 13. It may also be relevant to note that in the opposition filed on behalf of the CBI, apart from stressing on the nature and gravity of the offence, there is no whisper that the petitioner would intimidate witnesses or tamper with evidence. 14. In light of the tripod test, we are of the view the petitio....
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.... on case-to-case basis on the facts involved therein and securing the presence of the accused to stand trial. 30. Further, it is noticed that one of the co-accused has been granted bail by the High Court while the other co-accused is enjoying interim protection from arrest. The appellant is aged about 74 years and as noted by the High Court itself in its order, the appellant has already suffered two bouts of illness during incarceration and was put on antibiotics and has been advised to take steroids of maximum strength. In that circumstance, the availability of the appellant for further investigation, interrogation and facing trial is not jeopardised and he is already held to be not a "flight risk" and there is no possibility of tampering with the evidence or influencing/intimidating the witnesses. Taking these and all other facts and circumstances including the duration of custody into consideration the appellant in our considered view is entitled to be granted bail. It is made clear that the observations contained touching upon the merits either in the order of the High Court or in this order shall not be construed as an opinion expressed on merits and all contentions a....
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....llected, was allegedly delivered. The latter aspect, it appears, solely rests on the claim of Mr. Sachin Waze. 80. During the course of the submissions, on instructions, the Court was informed that Mr. Sachin Waze has been declared an approver by the CBI in the predicate offences, and in instant case also, an application has been preferred by Mr. Sachin Waze to declare him as an approver and the ED has given its no objection to the grant of the said prayer. 81. As of now, the status of Mr. Sachin Waze is a co-accused. The statements of Mr. Sachin Waze, banked upon by the prosecution, are but statements of a co-accused. To what extent, even at this stage, the statements of co-accused can be used against another, may warrant consideration. Even if it is assumed that the confession of a co-accused can be used against another co-accused, in the event of a joint trial, under Section 30 of the Evidence Act, 1872, or for that matter in the event of grant of pardon, the co-accused Mr. Sachin Waze deposes as an approver in favour of the prosecution, the question of reliability may arise in the light of the well recognized principles of law. Undoubtedly, that would be a mat....
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....mnia, recurrent bilateral shoulder dislocation and right lower limb radiculopathy." 96. The material on record does indicate that the Applicant has been suffering from multiple ailments. He is 73 years of age. Few of the ailments may classified as de-generative. The medical reports/certificates also show that the Applicant is suffering from chronic ailments, as well. In the light of the material on record, it would be audacious to observe that the Applicant is not a sick person." On the issue relating to bail may be granted on medical grounds, learned senior advocate relied upon Kewal Krishan Kumar Vs. Enforcement Directorate reported in 2023 SCC OnLine Del 1547. Reference was made to paragraphs 52 to 60 which are as follows : "52. The aforesaid shows that the Senior Medical Officer on 13.02.2023 has opined that the Applicant needs an attendant on a regular basis for timely medicines. He has suffered multiple episodes of seizures. The Medical Board has stated that the Applicant is stable with the medication. 53. The logical inference drawn from the above is that the Applicant is not in a position to take his regular dosage of medicines which is a condi....
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.... yet. The Applicant was released on interim bail for a period of one month and after expiry of the same, he surrendered and there is no allegation of misuse of liberty by him while on bail. 60. In view of the above observations, the Applicant is entitled to grant of bail." Reliance was also placed upon Chandra Prakash Khandelwal Vs. Directorate of Enforcement reported in 2023 SCC OnLine Del 1094 for emphasizing on the issue relating to the delay caused in trial or where trial is at the infant stage, bail should be granted by the Court. To that effect, reference was made to paragraphs 34 and 35 which are set out as follows: "34. Considering the submission of the petitioner, viz. the petitioner's claim he did not have knowledge if the funds of M/s. PACL were tainted in any manner on account of an order dated 28.11.2003 of Rajasthan High Court in PACL India Ltd. v. Union of India as also an order dated 26.02.2013 in SEBI v. PACL India Ltd. in CA 6753- 54/2004 wherein, the Hon'ble Supreme Court refused to classify M/s. PACL as CIS but had only directed the SEBI on 22.08.2014 to look into its affairs and that there was no embargo for 18 years upon M/s. PACL ....
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....r in any manner." Learned senior advocate after addressing the Court on several issues which touched the merits of the case, delay in trial of the case, medical grounds, age of the petitioner and complicity of the present petitioner prays that the totality of the circumstances at this stage, after one year nine months, do make out a case for releasing the petitioner on bail as prima facie the petitioner has satisfied the conditions both under Article 21 of the Constitution of India as well as under Section 45 of the PMLA. Rebutting the contentions of the learned senior advocate for the petitioner, Mr. Phiroze Edulji, learned advocate appearing for the Enforcement Directorate initially referred to the following documents: (a) An undertaking of the petitioner along with his no objection for Arpita Mukherjee adopting a child and to take all responsibilities of the child in case there is any misfortune. (b) Insurance document where the 'customer name' appears as 'Arpita Mukherjee' and the 'nominee name' is of 'Partha Chatterjee' - relationship Uncle/others. The bank particulars of the savings bank and the maturity payment were also relied upon which also refl....
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....ined by Sir Shri Partha Chatterjee as the seized cash and gold/jewellery belongs to him." It has been strenuously argued that the petitioner was a Cabinet Minister and an influential person who has amassed and acquired huge amount of assets which has been concealed and layered by various means, the said movable and immovable assets are proceeds of crime which was obtained by withholding the office enjoyed by the petitioner in connection with the recruitment of the primary teachers recruitment scam. According to the Enforcement Directorate, petitioner under no circumstances has been able to overcome the twin conditions under Section 45 of PMLA and as such, is not entitled to be released on bail. Learned advocate for the Enforcement Directorate in order to substantiate his argument with relation to bail in economic offences relied upon series of judgments. In Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy v. CBI, (2013) 7 SCC 439 reference was made to paragraphs 34 to 36 which are set out as follows: 34. Economic offences constitute a class apart and need to be visited with a different approach in the matter of bail. The economic offences having deep-rooted conspiracies and involving huge los....
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.... deals with the offence of money laundering and Parliament has enacted this law as per commitment of the country to the United Nations General Assembly. PMLA is a special statute enacted by Parliament for dealing with money laundering. Section 5 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 clearly lays down that the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure will not affect any special statute or any local law. In other words, the provisions of any special statute will prevail over the general provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure in case of any conflict. 29. Section 45 of PMLA starts with a non obstante clause which indicates that the provisions laid down in Section 45 of PMLA will have overriding effect on the general provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure in case of conflict between them. Section 45 of PMLA imposes the following two conditions for grant of bail to any person accused of an offence punishable for a term of imprisonment of more than three years under Part A of the Schedule of PMLA: (i) That the prosecutor must be given an opportunity to oppose the application for bail; and (ii) That the court must be satisfied that there are rea....
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....Criminal Procedure." The decisions of this Court in Subrata Chattoraj v. Union of India [Subrata Chattoraj v. Union of India, (2014) 8 SCC 768 : (2014) 6 SCC (Cri) 116] , Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy v. CBI [Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy v. CBI, (2013) 7 SCC 439 : (2013) 3 SCC (Cri) 552] and Union of India v. Hassan Ali Khan [Union of India v. Hassan Ali Khan, (2011) 10 SCC 235 : (2012) 1 SCC (Cri) 256] have been noticed in the aforesaid decision. 21. The consistent view taken by this Court is that economic offences having deep-rooted conspiracies and involving huge loss of public funds need to be viewed seriously and considered as grave offences affecting the economy of the country as a whole and thereby posing serious threat to the financial health of the country. Further, when attempt is made to project the proceeds of crime as untainted money and also that the allegations may not ultimately be established, but having been made, the burden of proof that the monies were not the proceeds of crime and were not, therefore, tainted shifts on the accused persons under Section 24 of the 2002 Act. 22. It is not necessary to multiply the authorities on the sweep of Section ....
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.... bail. However, such an offence in futuro must be an offence under the Act and not any other offence. Since it is difficult to predict the future conduct of an accused, the court must necessarily consider this aspect of the matter having regard to the antecedents of the accused, his propensities and the nature and manner in which he is alleged to have committed the offence. 45. It is, furthermore, trite that for the purpose of considering an application for grant of bail, although detailed reasons are not necessary to be assigned, the order granting bail must demonstrate application of mind at least in serious cases as to why the applicant has been granted or denied the privilege of bail. 46. The duty 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. However, while dealing with a special statute like MCOCA having regard to the provisions contained in sub-section (4) of Section 21 of the Act, the court may have to probe into the matter deeper so as to enable it to arrive at a finding that the materials collected against the accused during the investigation may not justify a judgment ....
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....e deciphered by the investigating officer, no role could be attributed to Anil Kumar Yadav that he inflicted injuries on Rohit Bansal as well as to deceased Rupesh Tanwar and the photographs do not show the presence of the accused Anil Kumar Yadav; (ii) CCTV footage do not corroborate the statement of the witnesses that the accused along with their cars were blocking the road; and (iii) accused Anil Kumar Yadav has been in custody since 31-10-2015. The Sessions Court pointed out that possibly no role could be attributed to accused Anil Kumar Yadav and observed as under: "... Admittedly, the crux of the CCTV footage is deciphered by the IO in the charge-sheet as mentioned above and in the said crux no role of accused Anil Kumar Yadav is found. Furthermore, there are other discrepancies pointed out by the counsel as discussed above which though could not be considered for the purpose of charge but could be considered as ground of bail...." 21. The Sessions Court though repeatedly observed that the court ought not to go into the merits of the prosecution case actually the court appears to have gone into the merits of the matter, in particular the CCTV footage to hold....
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.... 1 : 37 : 56. In photos Mark 'A' and 'B' the respondent's car is seen at the spot at 1 : 30 : 41 and 1 : 31 : 50 too." 23. The High Court had gone into the details of CCTV footage and noted the presence of accused Anil Kumar Yadav at the scene of occurrence that "he was seen entering into the Mercedes". The Sessions Court was not right in raising doubts about the presence of accused Anil Kumar Yadav and his role in inflicting injuries to deceased Rupesh Tanwar as well as to the injured Rohit Bansal at the present stage. Since the Sessions Court proceeded to grant bail on erroneous footing and also going into the merits of the materials collected, the High Court, in our view, rightly set aside the order granting bail to the accused Anil Kumar Yadav. 24. As pointed out earlier, one of the grounds for grant of bail to the appellant Anil Kumar Yadav by the Sessions Court was that he was in custody for more than one year. In crimes like murder, the mere fact that the accused was in custody for more than one year, may not be a relevant consideration. In Gobarbhai Naranbhai case [Gobarbhai Naranbhai Singala v. State of Gujarat, (2008) 3 SCC 775 : (2008) 2 SCC (Cri) 7....
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....on of Janata Jha v. Directorate of Enforcement [Janata Jha v. Directorate of Enforcement, Criminal Misc. Case No. 114 of 2011, decided on 16-12-2013 (Ori)] . Therefore, taking into account all these propositions of law, we feel that the application for bail of the appellant should be seen at this stage while the appellant is involved in the economic offence, in general, and for the offence punishable under Section 4 of PMLA, in particular." In order to emphasise on the issues relating to twin conditions reliance was placed to paragraphs 44 to 46 of Ranjitsing Brahmajeetsing Sharma v. State of Maharashtra (2005) 5 SCC 294 which read as follows: "44. The wording of Section 21(4), in our opinion, does not lead to the conclusion that the court must arrive at a positive finding that the applicant for bail has not committed an offence under the Act. If such a construction is placed, the court intending to grant bail must arrive at a finding that the applicant has not committed such an offence. In such an event, it will be impossible for the prosecution to obtain a judgment of conviction of the applicant. Such cannot be the intention of the legislature. Section 21(4) of MCOCA,....
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....ty in fair and impartial public administration. 13. Judged from such perspective, mere attendance during the course of investigation or severity of punishment cannot be the sole criteria for consideration of a bail prayer in the present factual matrix. Other weighty parameters like gravity of offence involving institutionalized corruption in matters of public employment need to be taken into consideration. Impact of the crime on society and the fate of innumerable victims viz., aspiring candidates in particular and students of the Government and Government aided school in general who stand deprived of quality education due to wrongful appointment also requires to be borne in mind." Reference was also made to the judgment reported in 2023 SCC Online Cal 23 (Anubrata Mondal -vs- CBI)]. The attention is drawn to paragraphs 7 to 10 of the said judgment, which is as follows: "7. Grant of bail to an undertrial requires a fine balance between the right to liberty and presumption of innocence of an accused on one hand and public interest in the discharge of sovereign duty of the State to investigate, prosecute and punish an offender on the other hand. Detention o....
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....acies and effect on the community as a whole is also to be kept in view, while consideration for bail is made."" Ld. Advocate for the Directorate of Enforcement has also relied upon the authoritative pronouncements and interpretations in respect of the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court reported in [2022 SCC OnLine SC 929 Vijay Madanlal Choudhary & Ors. -vs.- Union of India & Ors.]. Reference was also made to the judgment reported in [(2023) SCC OnLine SC 934 (V. Senthil Balaji V. State, represented by Deputy Director and others] to emphasize on the issues relating to bail in economic offences, right of the accused under section 21 of the Constitution of India and on the proposition that mere delay having no effect without the provision under Section 45 of the PMLA is satisfied. I have taken into account the materials available in the instant case, particularly, the seizures, which were effected both in respect of the movable and immoveable assets, the consistent version of the witnesses under section 50 of the PMLA as well as the corroborating materials which establishes the relationship between Partha Chatterjee and Aripta Mukherjee, which demonstrates tr....
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.... of or pursuing with an action regarding proceeds of crime, if the situation so warrants and for being presented before the Adjudicating Authority. It is a different matter that the information and evidence so collated during the inquiry made, may disclose commission of offence of money-laundering and the involvement of the person, who has been summoned for making disclosures pursuant to the summons issued by the Authority. At this stage, there would be no formal document indicative of likelihood of involvement of such person as an accused of offence of money-laundering. If the statement made by him reveals the offence of money-laundering or the existence of proceeds of crime, that becomes actionable under the Act itself. To put it differently, at the stage of recording of statement for the purpose of inquiring into the relevant facts in connection with the property being proceeds of crime is, in that sense, not an investigation for prosecution as such; and in any case, there would be no formal accusation against the noticee. Such summons can be issued even to witnesses in the inquiry so conducted by the authorised officials. However, after further inquiry on the basis of other mat....