The main legal point established in the judgment is the requirement of reasonable grounds for believing the accused is not guilty of the offense of money laundering under PMLA 2002, and the court's reliance on incriminating evidence to support its decision.

JUDGMENT Jasmeet Singh, J.

Facts:

1. This is an application seeking bail in Complaint Case No. 20 of 2021 bearing ECIR/DLCO-1/12/2021 arising out of FIR No. RC0742020E0014 wherein the applicant has been charged u/s 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and u/s 120B r/w 420, 465, 467, 468 and 471 of IPC, 1860 and is in custody since 22.06.2022. The applicant is alleged to have been involved in the offence of money laundering. The allegations against the applicant are that the applicant aided in fraudulent increase of inventory/stock in the account books of M/s Shakti Bhog Foods Limited [`SBFL'] which helped in increasing the borrowings.

2. The SBFL was engaged in manufacturing and selling food items like wheat flour, rice, biscuits, cookies, dalia, gram flour, maida etc. under the established and well-known brand name of `Shakti Bhog'. The company was managed through its Directors/Guarantors - Sh. Kewal Krishan Kumar, Sh. Siddharth Kumar and Smt. Sunanda Kumar. SBFL had around 250 regular employees. It is stated that the applicant was one such employee and was drawing renumeration as an employee.

3. An Investigation revealed that a bank fraud was committed by the active involvement of the Managing Directors, Directors and Guarantors of SBFL. Subsequently, in 2020, FIR No. RC0742020E0014 was registered by the CBI, Bank Securities & Fraud Cell, New Delhi on the basis of written complaints of bank officials against the SBFL and its Managing Director - Mr. Kewal Krishan Kumar, and its directors/guarantors - Mr. Siddharth Kumar and Mrs. Sunanda Kumar and unknown public servants, and other unknown persons for commission of offences u/s 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act,1988 and u/s 120B r/w 420, 465, 467, 468 and 471 of IPC, 1860

4. During the course of the investigation the consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India [`SBI'] vide Letter of Engagement dated 18.05.2018 engaged the services of a Forensic Auditor - BDO India LLP for conducting Forensic Audit of SBFL. The Forensic Auditor conducted audit review for the period w.e.f. 01.04.2013 to 31.03.2017 and submitted the report on 25.06.2019.

5. Consequently, it was alleged that due to the fraudulent activities, SBFL failed to discharge its loan liability and caused loss to the consortium member banks to the tune of INR 3269.42 Crore.

6. Subsequent to the recording of the ECIR, the investigation was initiated under the provision of PMLA. During the course of independent investigation conducted by the Respondent under PMLA, the records/documents pertaining to the instant case were called from various agencies, viz. CBI, Banks, Forensic auditor, Stock auditors, Income Tax department, Sub Registrars Offices. Searches were also conducted on 02.07.2021, 12.08.2021 and 17.09.2021following which the evidences were seized and statements of various persons were also recorded u/s 50 PMLA. The information and documents collected from various sources were scrutinized during the investigation.

7. The investigation revealed that, Mr. Kewal Krishan Kumar, the CMD of SBFL, who was also named as one of the directing minds and will of SBFL in the FIR/ECIR by the Respondent, was arrested on 03.07.2021. Raman Bhuraria, the then Internal Auditor of SBFL was also arrested on 13.08.2021. Subsequently, the Applicant, was summoned for questioning during the course of investigation. The Respondent proceeded to arrest the Applicant on 22.06.2022.

8. As per the Arrest Memo dated 22.06.2022, it is alleged that the Applicant was beneficiary of the proceeds of crime, from SBFL, which amounted to INR 1,00,00,000 over a period of 9 years from 2008 to 2017. It was further alleged that the Applicant was a shareholder/ director of various group entities of SBFL and that such entities provided a platform to SBFL to divert and rotate its loan funds changing its nature from liability to assets, thus, leading to commission of offence of money-laundering as defined under S