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I. P. MUKERJI, BISWAROOP CHOWDHURY
Prabha Surana – Appellant
Versus
State of West Bengal – Respondent
JUDGMENT :
I.P. MUKERJI, J.
INTRODUCTION
1. When the bail application was moved before us on 10th January, 2023, the petitioner was already in custody for 135 days. Investigation was over and charge sheet had been filed. Although, further investigation was contemplated, but any supplementary charge sheet had not been submitted. One co-accused had been granted bail. A special leave petition challenging that bail order SLP (Criminal) Diary No. 33282 of 2022 (Amita Dani and Others vs. Shubhika Surana and Anther), filed by the de-facto complainant was dismissed by the Supreme Court on 31st October, 2022. On these facts on 10th January, 2023 we granted bail to the petitioner.
2. The State of West Bengal was not happy with this order. In fact, they felt aggrieved. They moved the Supreme Court with a special leave petition (Crl.) No. 1981 of 2023. Its appeal was allowed. The Supreme Court passed the following order on 3rd March, 2023, remanding the matter back to us after setting aside our order:
The main legal point established is that bail is the rule and jail is the exception, and the decision to grant bail should consider the seriousness of the charge and the severity of the punishment.
The court established that under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, the offence of money laundering is independent of the predicate offence, and the burden of proof lies on the accused to ....
In economic offences, bail is not a right; the burden rests on the applicant to show no risk of interference with justice or likelihood of guilt, reinforced by the position of the accused.
Economic offences of huge magnitude with deep conspiracy and public fund loss require stringent bail denial, prioritizing offence gravity, prima facie evidence, tampering/fleeing risks over custody d....
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