JUDGMENT

Sashikanta Mishra, J.—The petitioner is the accused in Crl. Misc. Case (PMLA) No. 01 of 2020 pending in the Court of learned Sessions Judge, Khurdha at Bhubaneswar.

2. It appears that originally an FIR was lodged by the CID, CB, Cuttack on 30.05.2017 leading to registration of Case No. 13 of 2017 basing on a search conducted in the residential premises of the petitioner on the allegation that he was engaged in procurement of large number of Monitor Lizard hemi-penises and trading of the same online. Upon completion of investigation, charge sheet was submitted on 28.02.2018 in the Court of learned S.D.J.M., Bhubaneswar for the offences under Sections 177/182/420 of IPC read with Section 51 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The Enforcement Directorate, Bhubaneswar found that the FIR and charge sheet submitted by the CID, CB made out a prima face case of money laundering under Section 3 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (in short “PMLA Act”) punishable under Section 4 of the Act. Accordingly, ECIR bearing No.ECIR/BBSZO/03/2018 dated 14.06.2018 was registered against the petitioner and investigation was taken up. In course of investigation, the residential