TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (9) TMI 558
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....d denied and disputed all the allegations made therein. On 18.06.2025, FIR being Bidhannagar South Police Station Case No. 114 of 2025 was registered for investigation for commission of offences punishable under Sections 384, 419, 420, 506, 34 of the Indian Penal Code. Pursuant to complaint filed by the said Tapan Kumar Poi, on 01.07.2025, ECIR/KLZO-1/12/2025 dated 01.07.2025, under Section 4 read with Section 70 of PMLA, 2002 against the present petitioner was registered for investigation. On 02.07.2025, the present petitioner was arrested in connection with ML Case No. 09 of 2025 and was produced before the Learned Court below. On 23.07.2025, the complainant of the predicate offence was examined and his statement under Section 50 of the PMLA was recorded. On 08.09.2025, a prosecution complaint was filed by the Enforcement Directorate against the present petitioner. Cognizance was taken by the Learned Special Judge pursuant to the prosecution complaint. On 22.07.2025, the petitioner was shown arrested and produced before the ACJM, Bidhannagar and wherein the Learned Court was pleased to grant a police custody for 6 (six) days. On 20.08.2025, the Learned ACJM, Bidhannagar was pleas....
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....ucted discreetly; reinforcing the narrative that non-compliance would result in severe legal consequences. Since the offences under Sections 384, 419 & 420 of IPC corresponding to Section 308 (2), 319(2) & 318(4) of BNS) are covered under schedule of offences under Paragraph 1 of Part A of the schedule appended to Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (in short PMLA, 2002), as amended, and since the predicate offence under the FIR No. 114 of 2025 dated 18.06.2025 supra indicates towards generation of proceeds of crime (in short POC) as defined 4/2/14) of PMLA, 2002 and further laundering of the same, Complainant herein registered Enforcement Case Information Report (in short ECIR) No. ECIR/KLZO-1/12/2025 dated 01.07.2025 for investigation under the provisions of PMLA, 2002. After completion of purported investigation the Enforcement Director filed its complaint in final for commission of offences punishable under Section 4 read with Section 70 of the PMLA, against the present petitioner, and pursuant to such the Learned Chief Judge, City Session Court, Calcutta was pleased by its order dated 03.07.2025 to take cognizance of the offences mentioned therein. The petitioner had f....
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....er Section 50 of the PMLA Act, 2000. However the investigating agency have not taken a single permission from the Learned Court below before relying upon the statement recorded in connection with another case. Hence, the grounds of arrest served upon the present petitioner is thoroughly misconceived and thoroughly against the principal of natural justice and Article 22 of the Constitution of India. In such circumstances the petitioner prayer for bail may be considered and allowed by this Hon'ble Court. The enforcement directorate had exceeded its jurisdiction beyond the scope of the prevention of money laundering Act, 2002. Admittedly, the Enforcement Directorate had exceeded its jurisdiction in the instant case by bringing down facts which are not connected with the allegation leveled in the complaint of the predicate offence which is completely violation of the provisions of Section 3 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. Admittedly, the investigation of predicate offence is still pending and even if the Learned Special Court completes the witness action which till date four prosecution witness has been examine in connection with the instant case and that the presen....
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....ng cards, rubber stamps, letter heads, letters of ED etc. which are corroborative towards the complaint in the predicate offence that the accused/petitioner resorted to extortion of money from various victims by impersonating himself as the officer of ED/high ranking Government official. Even the accused/petitioner portrayed his wife as CBI Officer before various victims and issued fake letters of ED to the victims for initiating investigation against them. That further it is found that accused/petitioner projected himself to be Chairman of National Anti-Trafficking Committee (in short 'NATC) claimed to registered under NITI Aayog, Govt. of India. The website of NATC was designed by displaying logos of NITI Aayog and National Emblem. The web domain being https://natcgov.in was made to create an impression of Government website. Likewise web domains of other fake organization of the accused/petitioner were also developed e.g. https://asiaticgov.in or https://www.arogovt.in. Mr. Subhojit Sarkar, being the web designer, in his statements under Section 50 of PMLA duly admitted the fact of use of logos of Government of India in such websites at the instance of the accused/petitioner to ....
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.... which is at evidence stage while the evidence of CSW-19/PW-3 i.e., the de facto complainant is going on. By producing Report dated 05.03.2026 of IO before this Court it is pleaded on behalf of ED that there are 12 vulnerable witnesses in the said trial before the Learned Special Court. The analysis of various bank accounts of the accused/petitioner revealed huge transactions without any actual or legitimate source of business and rather corroborating the fact of extortion/ cheating of money from various victims by the accused/petitioner. The accused/petitioner was arrested on 02.07.2025 and the trial in ML Case No. 09 of 2025 before the Learned Special Court is at substantial progress and hence, there is no question of any incarceration without trial in the present case. It is submitted that Section 479 of BNSS duly provides the maximum period for which undertrial prisoner can be detained and in the present case, such period has not eclipsed yet. As stated before, there is every possibility of tampering of evidence and influencing the witness coupled with the chance of abscond if the accused herein is enlarged on bail at this stage. In other words, the tripod test of bail under Cr....
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....this Hon'ble Court in CRM (M) 932 of 2025 [Basudeb Bagchi & Anr. v. Enforcement Directorate Para]; (xvii) Judgment dated 16.03.2026 passed by the Hon'ble Co-ordinate Bench of this Hon'ble Court in CRM(R) 20 of 2025 [Prasenjit Das v. Enforcement Directorate. Accordingly, on behalf of ED it is most humbly prayed that the prayer for bail of the accused/petitioner herein may kindly be rejected at this stage in the interest of fair trial. 4. I heard the learned counsels for the parties and perused the application, the written notes filed on behalf of the parties and the materials collected during investigation. 5. At the outset, it is made clear that the allegations against the present petitioner in the complaint as well as in the FIR for the predicate offences are far too serious. It was alleged among other things, that the petitioner duped individuals like the de facto complainant of huge sums of money by posing as an officer of the Enforcement Directorate. Forged documents were prepared. After perusing the materials made available by the investigating agency, it does not appear that the petitioner has been able to surmount the restriction contained in the Section 45 of....