TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (4) TMI 529
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.... invocation of bank guarantees and other allegations showing aggregated loss of Rs. 173.50 crore on account of deduction or invocation of bank guarantees (BG's). 3. The charge sheet was filed thereupon 28.04.2018 by the CID, West Bengal against 11 accused persons. They were found involved in misappropriation of amount totaling to Rs. 173.50 crore. During the investigation, it was found that the funds sanctioned by NSIC as financial assistance under RMA scheme to 61 MSME firms were directly transferred to the accounts of 33 supplier firms against the purported fake bills submitted by these MSMEs. Thus, other offences by the accused were also reflected involving commission of crime for a sum of Rs. 173.50 crores. 4. The ECIR was recorded by the respondent followed by investigation wherein the appellant apart from others were found involved and accordingly prosecution complaint was filed. The cognizance of the offence has been taken by the court. 5. So far the appellant is concerned, it was revealed that he was involved along with the one with Gopinath Bhattacharya and Manik Lal Das for the activity of money laundering. They received huge amount of proceeds of crime, a part o....
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.... to above. It is despite an opportunity to raise any factual or legal issue borne out from the appeal. The counsel for the appellant closed his arguments with the prayer to allow the appeal. 12. The appeal was contested by the respondent. The learned counsel made elaborate arguments to show justification of freezing of the bank account and its retention. There is no illegality in the order while it was analyzed on legal as well as factual side. The prayer was accordingly made to dismiss the appeal. The argument of the respondent would be analyzed while dealing with the argument of the counsel for the appellant. 13. We have considered the rival submissions and scanned the matter carefully. The facts on record shows registration of the FIR for commission of offence under section 420, 406, 409, 467, 468, 120-B IPC and based on the FIR disclosing predicate offence, the ECIR was recorded by the respondent. In the mean time, the charge sheet was filed by the CID on 28/04/2018 showing misappropriation of an amount of Rs. 173.50 crores. The role of the appellant was revealed and accordingly after recording of the ECIR when investigation was caused, the bank accounts of the appellant ....
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....cation under sub-section (5) or sub-section (7) of section 8, [Special Court], shall direct the release of all property other than the property involved in money-laundering to the person from whom such property was seized or the persons entitled to receive it. (6) Where an order releasing the property has been made by the [Special Court] under sub-section (6) of section 8 or by the Adjudicating Authority under section 58B or sub-section (2A) of section 60, the Director or any officer authorised by him in this behalf may withhold the release of any such property for a period of ninety days from the date of [receipt of] such order, if he is of the opinion that such property is relevant for the appeal proceedings under this Act. 15. The perusal of the provision does not show that if bank account has been freezed under section 17 (1A) of the Act of 2002, then it would lapse on the expiry of 180 days, rather if within the aforesaid period, the Adjudicating Authority allow retention of the bank account, the freezing would remain in operation beyond a period of 180 days. In this case, the order for retention has been passed by the Adjudicating Authority within 180 days, thus n....
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....d Manik Lal Das, ex. NSIC officials, were also one of the main conspirators behind the NSIC scam; that Kedar Nath Prusty, Pradip Kumar Gangopadhyay and Manik Mohan Mishra, branch managers of United Bank of India, are also the other main conspirators behind the NSIC scam; that Alok Chowdhury, working in Behala Regional Office of United Bank of India, might also be one of the main conspirators behind this NSIC scam, that he described the organizational setup of NSIC and its activities, RMA scheme and role of NSIC officials in implementation of this scheme, that Sudhangshu Kumar Halder had long experience regarding RMA scheme and he was known to Debabrata Haldar since 2009-10; that Sudhangshu Kumar Halder was kingpin of that NSIC scam, who in collusion with Debabrata Haldar, conspired its whole architecture; that all those MSME units, whose RMA proposals were brought/arranged through Debabrata Haldar, were fake/non-existent/fictitious, but Sudhangshu Kumar Halder got sanctioned RMA proposals of all such fake/fictitious MSME units, due to his influence; that Sudhangshu Kumar Halder had taken a lot of money from Debabrata Haldar, that Sudhangshu Kumar Halder was in contact with the bran....