TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (3) TMI 848
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....56, Palam Vihar Gurgaon Smt. Archana Gupta W/o Shri Sanjay Gupta Rs. 45.00 Lakh + Rs2.65 Lakh towards Registration and Stamp Duty 2. Account No. 910010013974898 with Axis Bank New Delhi, Smt. Archana Gupta W/o Shri Sanjay Gupta Rs. 29,07,917.83/- 2. The relevant facts, briefly, are that on the basis of a complaint lodged by one Shri Binu Soman, Assistant Vice-President, CITI Bank, DLF, Phase- II, Gurgaon, before the Haryana Police, an FIR (FIR No. 341/2010) was registered by the State Police against one Sh. Shiv Raj Puri and others for commission of offences u/s. 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the erstwhile Indian Penal Code (IPC). The main allegation in the complaint was that Sh. Shiv Raj Puri, Relationship Manager of the Bank, had opened a joint account (A/c No. 5011666247) in the said Bank in the names of his relatives, Sh. Prem Nath, Smt. Sheila Prem Nath and Smt. Deeksha Puri. The said Shiv Raj Puri had been showing a copy of a Circular said to have been issued by SEBI to investors for investing huge amounts into the account. Further, he also issued forged Term Deposit Receipts and forged bank statements to the investors with the intention to ....
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....012. inter alia attaching the two properties of the present appellant mentioned in para 1 above. 7. An Original Complaint (OC) having been filed before the Ld. AA as per the requirement of Section 5(5) of the Act, the Ld. AA confirmed the attachment of the properties in question vide the impugned order dated 20.02.2013. 8. Aggrieved by the said order of the Ld. AA dated 20.02.2013 confirming the provisional attachment of the properties, the appellant has preferred the present appeal challenging the same. Arguments on behalf of the appellant 9. Detailed arguments have been presented on behalf of the appellant. It is, firstly. contended that the appellant herein is basically a housewife. It is pointed out that during the course of the investigations by the ED, statements of Prem Nath, Raghu Raj Puri, Sanjay Gupta, Gaurav Jain, Lalit Allagh, Virender Uppal, Binu Soman, Arun Anand, Kiran Jain, Archna Gupta were recorded u/s. 50 PMLA. A bare perusal of the statements would broadly highlight that Shiv Raj Puri was the mastermind of the scheme. The statements do not reflect any conscious involvement of the present appellant or her husband in the entire scam. 10. It is submi....
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....o Corporate Services Ltd. Likewise, subsequent to the registration of FIR No. 341/2010, specific instructions were again issued to transfer an amount of Rs.3,42,00,000/- to the same entity, M/s Arrow Infra Ltd. 12. It is argued that the appellant and her husband are not even remotely connected with the proceeds of crime because there has to be a conscious possession with knowledge of the amount which can be said to be proceeds of crime and, in the present case, there was no conscious possession or knowledge of the amount which had been later transferred to Arrow Infra Ltd. in two transactions. 13. It is submitted that the top brass of M/s Hero Corporate Service Limited intelligently trapped their own Associate Vice President, first to receive the commission in M/s BG Financial, being partner, and then diverting that amount to M/s Arrow Infra twice, first Rs 5 Lakhs, and subsequently Rs 3.42 crores. This fact is also evident in the impugned order. 14. Further, the CFO of M/s Hero Corporate (Sanjay Gupta) is alleged to have convinced Hero Corporate to deposit Rs. 5 crore. However, emails sent by Ms. Shefali Munjal, Director heading the Insurance Division ("Nsure Plus") of M/....
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....acie illegal, unsustainable, and liable to be set aside. 17. Next, the attention of the Appellate Tribunal is drawn to the list of witnesses submitted by the prosecution, comprising 41 witnesses. It is submitted in this regard that the names of Shri Ashok Goyal, Shri Yogesh Jindal, Shri Ashok Mukherji, and Shri K.K. Bajaj, though specifically referred to in the impugned order, do not find mention in the said list of witnesses. It is contended that when such persons have not even been cited by the prosecution as witnesses, it is wholly untenable for the ED or the AA to proceed on the assumption that these individuals were "cheated" or otherwise aggrieved, for the purpose of fastening liability upon the Appellant. This circumstance unequivocally establishes that the impugned order does not rest upon contemporaneous or credible evidence but is instead founded upon mere conjectures and surmises. It is contended that the apparent reason for such selective and botched investigation seems to be the non-inclusion of influential entities and leading business groups despite their evident involvement. For instance, M/s Hero Corporate Services Ltd., despite having made substantial investmen....
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....ting Authority was in possession of any incriminating material against the Appellant or her husband at the time of passing of the impugned order. Despite this absence of material evidence, individuals whose names surfaced during the investigation have merely been cited as witnesses, whereas the husband of the Appellant has been arbitrarily arrayed as an accused without any cogent or lawful basis. 20. It is also pointed out M/s Hero Corporate Services Ltd. entered into a Settlement Agreement dated 31.03.2011 with Citi Bank within seven days of registration of the ECIR, whereby the bank agreed to make payment equivalent to the principal amount invested or deposited in the scheme termed as fraudulent perpetrated by Shiv Raj Puri. The agreement is only between Citi Bank and Hero Corporate and named only Shiv Raj Puri and nobody else. Further, records show that all the amount previously paid to M/s Hero Corporate Services Ltd. by Shiv Raj Puri, from the custodial account had never been treated as proceeds of crime nor any efforts were made to recover that amount. It is submitted that this Settlement Agreement unequivocally demonstrates that M/s Hero Corporate Services Ltd. was fully ....
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....itimate enjoyment and use of her property. In the absence of statutory compliance and considering the manifest disproportionality of the continued attachment, the equitable jurisdiction of this Tribunal warrants intervention to restore the Appellant's rightful ownership. 25. It is further submitted that the arbitrary and discriminatory proceedings initiated against the Appellant, being devoid of rational basis and violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, deserve to be quashed in the interest of justice, equity, and fair play. 26. Based on the above contentions, the appellant has prayed that the impugned order dated 22.10.2013 be set aside and the attached property be released in favour of the Appellant, as the complaint is devoid of any credible, admissible, or contemporaneous material, and the Ld. AA has proceeded mechanically on a deficient and untenable record, thereby rendering the impugned order wholly unsustainable in law. Arguments on behalf of the respondent 27. The respondent Directorate has strongly contested the arguments advanced on behalf of the appellant. Referring first to the facts of the case, it is submitted that the main charg....
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....nagement Consultants came into existence on 29-04-2010; that one car bearing registration no. HR 26 BD7902 was purchased on 24- 07-2010 in the name of M/s B.G. Financial Services from the AXIS Bank account no. 910020019164197 of M/s B.G. Financial Serv0ices and a DD worth Rs.3,64,896 was given in favour of Maruti Suzuki Pasco Automobiles, Gurgaon, and, on 28-07-2010 Rs.17,000 were paid on account of Insurance; that he had purchased a plot no.C-2-1056, Palam Vihar, Gurgaon in the name of his wife Archana Gupta from Komal Khurana and Pritam Kaur Garewal from his ICICI Bank account No.035801500543 by way of payment through DD No.035220 dated 21.05.2010 for Rs. 22,50,000 and DD No. 035221 dated 24.05.2010 for Rs. 22,50,000 in favour of Komal Khurana and Pritam Kaur Garewa, respectively, also paid Rs.2,50,000 and Rs.15,000 in cash against Stamp Duty and Registration fees, he had received Rs. 65,00,000 as loan from ICICI Bank on 20-05-2010; that on 06-08-2010 amount worth Rs. 60,00,000 was received from M/s B.G. Financial Services account into his ICICI Bank account, out of which Rs. 55,50,000/- were utilized to repay the loan amount; he has thus utilized the money generated out of commi....
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....ocuments have also been provided by him. 30. The attachment was made of Plot of land at No. C-2/1056, Palam Vihar Gurgaon registered in the name of Archana Gupta, wife of Sanjay Gupta, purchased during the year 2010. As per the registered deed, this plot of land measuring 225.50 Sq Mts was purchased from Komal Khurana and Pritam Kaur Greywal against the recorded total consideration of Rs. 45 lakh; payments of Rs. 22.5 lakh each were made to both the above persons by way of bank drafts prepared from the ICICI Bank account of Sanjay Gupta and the Appellant; payment of Rs. 2.50 lakh was made towards stamp duty, besides registration fee of Rs. 15,000/-; Initially, loan of Rs. 65 lakh was obtained in this context from ICICI Bank, which loan was later on partly re-paid to the extent of Rs. 55.50 lakh out of the funds drawn from M/s B.G. Financial Services, the firm which was made use of by him for receiving commission in lieu of his having arranged investments in the captioned bogus Scheme floated by Shiv Raj Puri, which acts were done by Sanjay Gupta in furtherance to the captioned criminal conspiracy. Thus, this immovable property has been acquired by utilizing funds generated in th....
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....tion may assist the said accused in the concealment of the proceeds of extortion. In such a case, the person who assists the accused in the scheduled offence for concealing the proceeds of the crime of extortion can be guilty of the offence of money laundering. Therefore, it is not necessary that a person against whom the offence under Section 3 of the PMLA is alleged must have been shown as the accused in the scheduled offence. What is held in paragraph 270 of the decision of this Court in the case of Vijay Madanlal Choudhary supports the above conclusion. The conditions precedent for attracting the offence under Section 3 of the PMLA are that there must be a scheduled offence and that there must be proceeds of crime in relation to the scheduled offence as defined in clause (u) of sub-section (1) of Section 3 of the PMLA." * * * "27. (a) It is not necessary that a person against whom the offence under Section 3 of the PMLA is alleged, must have been shown as the accused in the scheduled offence." 33. As regards the contention raised by the appellant that only statement of one investor has been recorded by the respondent, it is submitted that in the year 2011, ....
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.... 41 prosecution witnesses was completed on 02.03.2020. After taking additional evidence on record, the prosecution evidence was closed on 04.10.2022. Thereafter, the matter has been pending for the defence evidence on one pretext or the other. 37. In light of the facts and circumstances aforementioned, the Respondent has prayed that the present appeal be dismissed and the impugned order confirming the attachment of the properties be confirmed. Analysis & Findings 38. I have given careful consideration to the material on record and the rival contentions of the parties. The appellant in the present case is Smt. Archana Gupta and for the present, this Appellate Tribunal is only seized of the legality or otherwise of the attachment made in the hands of the present appellant. As such, no comments can be made on the culpability on otherwise of M/s Hero Corporates on any other entity associated or alleged to be associated with the matter. In so far as the present appellant is concerned, it is no doubt true that the facts on record do not reveal that she was actively involved either in the commission of the scheduled offence or in money-laundering. As per the appellant's own state....
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....e. 41. The next set of contentions raised on behalf of the appellant are that the top management of M/s Hero Corporates was fully aware deeply involved in the scheme, having conceived and managed the same, but the very same persons have been portrayed as innocent victims; that the entire investigation was arbitrary and discriminatory; and that there is no evidence of any wrongdoing by the appellant or her husband, or the evidence against them is unreliable and without any merit. The relevant submissions in this regard are in paragraphs 10-14 & 21 of this order and are not repeated here for the sake of brevity. 42. With regard to these submissions, it may firstly be pointed out that the present proceedings before this Appellate Tribunal are not in the nature of a criminal prosecution trial requiring proof beyond reasonable doubt. In fact, under law, once a notice is issued to a person under Section 8(1) by the Adjudicating Authority, the burden is entirely upon such person to indicate the sources of his income, earning or assets, out of which or by means of which he or she has acquired the property attached under sub- section 5(1), the evidence on which he relies and other rel....