TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (1) TMI 1232
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....ecial Court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 at Panchkula, has dismissed the petitioner's application seeking permission to travel and stay in Canada for a period of six months during pendency of complaint dated 15.02.2021, COMA/03/2021 titled Assistant Director, Directorate of Enforcement v. Bhupinder Singh Hooda and others, under Sections 44 and 45 of the PMLA, pursuant to ECIR/CDZO/01/2015 dated 05.04.2016, wherein he has been arrayed as accused no. 18. Further, a prayer has been made to permit the petitioner to travel to Canada. 2. Facts of the case in brief are, the petitioner, who is a citizen of Canada, is employed with the Department of Law Enforcement, Government of Canada, as Correctional Officer with N....
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....by the CBI. Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, Special Court allowed the applications, vide order dated 15.05.2024, Annexure P-3, and stayed the proceedings in the complaint case. Operative part of the order reads as under: 26. As a sequel to the discussion above, all the applications are allowed and proceedings of the present case are hereby paused till submission of Final Report in RC No. AC/1/2016/A/002 dated 19.05.2016. The order has been challenged before the ED by filing a petition, CRR-20472024, which remains pending adjudication, but the order dated 15.05.2024 has not been stayed. Consequently, the proceedings of the case remain paused. 2.3. In these circumstances, the petitioner was granted permissi....
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....ving repeated applications seeking extension of stay there was taken exception to while dismissing the application. 3. In this factual background, learned senior counsel contended that the application has been dismissed on an erroneous premise. The petitioner has not violated any of the conditions imposed by the Court while allowing him to stay in Canada. As directed by the Court, he returned to India and appeared before the Court. Accordingly, there is no apprehension of his avoiding the process. Further, his travel abroad would not be any impediment to the case as the proceedings remained stayed in terms of the order passed by the Special Court itself. He placed reliance upon an order, dated 12.05.2001, passed by the Supreme Court in S....
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....s extension was declined, he returned to the country and should not be permitted to leave again. Learned counsel, however, did not dispute that proceedings of the case, COMA/03/2021, still remain paused as final report in the predicate offence has not been filed by the CBI. 5. Submissions made by learned counsel for the parties have been considered. 6. The undisputed position on record is that the proceedings in the prosecution complaint, COMA/03/2021, filed against the petitioner remain paused/stayed on account of failure of the investigating agency/CBI to present final report in the case involving predicate offence bearing no. AC/1/2016/A/002 dated 19.05.2016. Also, the petitioner has been permitted to travel and stay in Canada by t....