The court ruled that the presumption of innocence and the right to a speedy trial under Article 21 of the Constitution outweigh the stringent conditions for bail under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

JUDGMENT :

NEENA BANSAL KRISHNA, J.

1. The present Petition has been filed under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ("Cr.P.C." hereinafter) read with Sections 45 and 65 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 ("PMLA 2002" hereinafter) on behalf of Applicant Sameer Mahandru seeking regular Bail in ECIR/HIU-II/14/2022 dated 22.08.2022 ("ECIR" hereinafter) registered under Section 3 and Section 4 PMLA, 2002.

2. Briefly stated, the Applicant was arrested on 28.09.2022 and has been suffering incarceration for more than 18 months. The Central Bureau of Intelligence ("CBI") had registered an FIR No. RC0032022A0053 dated 17.08.2022 P.S. CBI, ACB under Sections 120-B read with 477-A of Indian Penal Code, 1860 ("IPC") and Section 7 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 ("PC" Act).

3. Thereafter, the present ECIR was registered on 22.08.2022 and the Applicant has been illegally arrested on 28.09.2022 in total derogation of the procedure established under Section 19 PMLA. The ED had filed an incomplete prosecution complaint before the Trial Court on 26.11.2022 arraying Applicant as accused No.1.

4. The Applicant moved an Application on 22.12.2022 before the learned Trial Court, to seek Regular Bail. However, the same along with the four other accused persons who had moved separate Bail Applications, have been rejected vide common Order dated 16.02.2023.

5. The Applicant moved second bail Application before the learned Trial Court, in view of the various changes in the circumstances and elapse of substantial period of time, but the same was also dismissed vide Order dated 24.02.2024. The Applicant had sought regular bail on the following grounds:

i. that he has been granted regular bail on 28.02.203 in the predicate offence;

ii. co-accused No.21 and 23 i.e. Rajesh Joshi and Gautam Malhotra have been granted regular bail on merits, by the learned Trial Court on 06.05.2023;

iii. co-accused No.7 P. Sarath Chandra Reddy has been granted regular bail on medical grounds vide Order dated 08.05.2023;

iv. another accused has been granted bail on 01.08.2023;

v. accused no.18 Raghav Magunta has been granted regular bail on 10.08.2023;

vi. co-accused no.11 Benoy Babu has been granted regular bail on 08.12.2023 by the Supreme Court in SLP (Crl.) Nos.11644-11645/2023;

vii. that he has been admitted to interim bail on number of occasions i.e. from 28.02.2023 to 01.05.2023 by the learned Trial Court, from 12.06.2023 to 04.09.2023 by this Court and then from 05.01.2024 till 17.02.2024 by the learned Trial Court. He had not even once misused the liberty granted to him and never violated any of the conditions imposed by this Court while on interim bail;

viii. the Apex Court in its Order dated 15.12.2023 while dismissed Special Leave Petition (SLP) (Crl.) No.14634/2023 filed by the Applicant seeking regular bail on medical grounds, clarified that the dismissal of the SLP would not have any bearing on the Application of the Applicant for regular bail as and when the same was applied;

ix. more than 11 months have passed since the dismissal of first regular Bail Application, on 16.02.2023;

x. the Applicant has suffered substantial period of the custody; and xi. the bail is also sought on medical condition of himself and his wife.

6. The Applicant has claimed that he was arrested on 28.09.2022 and was mechanically remanded to custody of the ED up to 06.10.2022 which was followed by another extension of four days i.e. up to 10.10.2022. Pertinently, the Applicant had moved an Application dated 06.10.2022 seeking copy of ECIR as well as the grounds of arrest. On 10.12.2022, the ED did not seek further custody of the Applicant and he was remanded to judicial custody thereafter.

7. The Applicant has further agitated that though the investigations qua the Applicant are claimed to be complete by the ED, but the investigations are still ongoing and incomplete and piecemeal Complaints are being filed in the Court, only to somehow scuttle the right of the Applicant