TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (1) TMI 945
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.... 'the PMLA Act'). 2. The brief facts of the case are that the Income Tax sleuths conducted a search at the premises of Babulal Agrawal on 04.02.2010, which resulted in the seizure of cash amount of Rs. 68.10 lakhs and jewellery worth Rs. 70.20 lakhs and other assets worth Rs. 12.50 crores. A search was also conducted at the premises of co-accused Sunil Kumar Agrawal, C.A. of Babulal Agrawal where 230 bank passbooks were recovered. It is further alleged that Sunil Kumar Agrawal opened a bank account in the name of the villagers by using documents given by the villagers and forging their signatures. The money deposited in such bank accounts was channelized as share capital in M/s. Prime Ispat Limited through shell companies. 3. The allegation against the present applicant No. 1 is that he was working with the main accused Babulal Agrawal as a Chartered Accountant (CA) from the year 2004-2005 to 2009-2010 and under the instructions of accused Pawan Agrawal and Alok Agrawal, he opened benami bank accounts of persons who were residents of Kharora, Motimpurakala, Chingariya and Madhepur and nearby villages. As far as applicants No.2 & 3 are concerned, they are relatives of applicant No....
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....Court and thereafter, by this Court. Ultimately, the Hon'ble Supreme Court in SLP (Cr.) No.2106 of 2022 was kind enough to grant anticipatory bail to Pawan Kumar Agrawal and Ashok Kumar Agrawal. He further stated that in pursuance of the order passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court, the accused persons, namely, Vimal Agrawal and Vinod Agrawal have been granted anticipatory bail by this Court in MCRCA No. 1455 of 2021 vide order dated 09.02.2023. He lastly contended that though different ECIRs were registered by the respondent, the sum and substance of the allegations are similar and thus, he would pray to grant anticipatory bail to the present applicants. 7. On the other hand, learned counsel appearing for the respondent would oppose the submissions made by counsel for the applicants. He submitted that applicant No. 1 was working with Babulal Agrawal as CA and applicants No.2 & 3 assisted applicant No. 1, and provided support to the main accused Babulal Agrawal who played an active role in committing the crime of money laundering by earning the proceeds of crime. He further submitted that according to the law laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the matter of Satender Kumar Anti....
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.... an FIR against Babulal Agrawal in the addendum ECIR. On 04.01.2021 i.e. after 10 years, the respondent filed a prosecution complaint arraying the applicants as accused. The main accused, namely, Babulal Agrawal has been granted regular bail in MCRC No. 78 of 2021 vide order dated 10.02.2021 on the ground that he has been exonerated of the allegations by the Adjudicating Authority, PMLA. The order dated 10.02.2021 was challenged before the Hon'ble Supreme Court by filing SLP (Crl.) No. 5661 of 2021 by the respondent and the same was also dismissed vide order dated 16.11.2021. 11. Section 45 of the PMLA Act says as under:- 45. Offences to be cognizable and non-bailable.- "(1) [Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), no person accused of an offence [under this Act] shall be released on bail or on his own bond unless--] (i) the Public Prosecutor has been given a opportunity to oppose the application for such release; and (ii) where the Public Prosecutor opposes the application, the court is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is not guilty of such offence and that he is not likely to commit any offe....
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....erated with the investigation throughout and yet on the charge-sheet being filed non-bailable warrants have been issued for his production premised on the requirement that there is an obligation to arrest the accused and produce him before the court. We are of the view that if the Investigating Officer does not believe that the accused will abscond or disobey summons he/she is not required to be produced in custody. The word "custody" appearing in Section 170 of the Cr.P.C. does not contemplate either police or judicial custody but it merely connotes the presentation of the accused by the Investigating Officer before the court while filing the charge-sheet. 12. In the present case when the appellant has joined the investigation, investigation has completed and he has been roped in after seven 4 Joginder Kumar v. State of UP & Ors. (1994) 4 SCC 260 years of registration of the FIR we can think of no reason why at this stage he must be arrested before the chargesheet is taken on record. We may note that learned counsel for the appellant has already stated before us that on summons being issued the appellant will put the appearance before the trial court." In Pankaj Grover (supra)....
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....l commodities, life, property and well-being of common persons have no value. Criminal acts committed by such persons are creating a serious challenge before criminal justice system; It is difficult to identify whether crime was committed, when it is identified that crime was committed, it is difficult to find out clues and thereby evidences; when evidences are available, nature of evidences is completely different as not possible to be collected by simple investigating, presented by prosecution agency and ultimately to convict and sentence; when sentenced, simple sentence is not effective to deal with such modern criminals and their criminality. A criminal of such modern criminality are respected and influential persons with position, status, standing and means thereby they are always in situation to influence proceeding in investigation and prosecution, tamper with the evidences and pressurise witnesses. 42. In socio-economic offences proceed of crimes are larger and further, offenders are economically sound, therefore, in releasing them on bail/anticipatory bail probability of abscondance not within country but beyond country is more probable. Usually socio-economic offenders ....
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....ns governing the field. The gravity of the offence, the object of the Special Act, and the attending circumstances are a few of the factors to be taken note of, along with the period of sentence. After all, an economic offence cannot be classified as such, as it may involve various activities and may differ from one case to another. Therefore, it is not advisable on the part of the court to categorise all the offences into one group and deny bail on that basis. Suffice it to state that law, as laid down in the following judgments, will govern the field:- 100.5. There need not be any insistence of a bail application while considering the application under Section 88, 170, 204 and 209 of the Code. 100.6. There needs to be a strict compliance of the mandate laid down in the judgment of this court in Siddharth (supra)." The Hon'ble Apex Court in the matter of Satender Kumar Antil vs. Central Bureau of Investigation and Another reported in (2021) 10 SCC 773 in para 5 of the report observed thus:- "5. The trial Courts and the High Courts will keep in mind the aforesaid guidelines while considering bail applications. The caveat which has been put by learned ASG is that where the a....
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....the respondent/ED and arrayed as accused no 2. The investigating officer consciously did not arrest the applicants. The applicants participated in investigation as his three statements under section 50 PMLA were recorded. The respondent also did not allege that the applicants neither participated nor cooperated in investigation. The concerned Special Court after taking cognizance on present criminal complaint ordered for summoning of the accused persons including the applicants. The investigating officer even after filing of present complaint did not apply for custody of the applicants. The co-accused Gautam Thapar was arrested consciously by the investigating officer during investigation and was denied bail by the Special Court and High Court and as such the applicants is standing on different footing from co-accused Gautam Thapar. The applicants was taken into custody due to dismissal of bail application vide order dated 20.01.2022 passed by the court of Sh. Sanjeev Aggarwal, Special Judge (PC Act)(CBI)-02 Rouse Avenue District Court, New Delhi. The applicants primarily not seeking bail on merit but on basis of observation made by the Supreme Court in para no 65 of Satinder Kumar....