The court emphasized that under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, bail can only be granted if there are reasonable grounds to believe the accused is not guilty, which was not established in this case.

JUDGMENT :

SUJIT NARAYAN PRASAD, J.

1. The instant application has been filed for grant of regular bail to the petitioner, in connection with ECIR Case No.04 of 2021 (CNR No. JHRN01009069-2021), registered for alleged offence under Section 3 read with Section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, (herein referred as Act,2002) pending in the Court of learned AJC-XVIII-cum-Special Judge, P.M.L. Act, Ranchi.

Factual Matrix

2. The facts leading to filing of the present case reads as under:

3. The prosecution case in brief is that the complaint case registered by Assistant Director (PMLA), Enforcement Directorate, Government of India, Zonal Office, Ranchi, has been filed with relevant documents under Section 45 r/w Section 44 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, for commission of offence under Section 3 of PMLA, 2002 and punishable under Section 4 of PMLA, against accused persons, namely, (i) Panna Lal Mahto @ Ganjhu, (ii) Sunita Kumari @ Sunita (petitioner no.1 herein), (iii) Gopal Oraon, (iv) Shiv Shankar Mahto @ Ganjhu (petitioner no.2 herein) (v) Birsa Bhagwan Placement Bureau (Registration No. 2011024073 Dated 13.07.2011 registered with the Labour Department at Delhi, NCT) (vi) Birsa Security and placement (Registration No. 2012000502 Dated 04.01.2012 registered with the Labour Department at Delhi, NCT), (vii) Laxmi Placement Service (Registration No. 2013012116 Dated 19.04.2013 registered with the Labour Department at Delhi, NCT), (viii) Birsa Bhagwan Tribal Welfare Society (Registration No. S49689 of 2004 registered under Societies Registration Act (XXI) of 1860), (ix) M/s Secureluck Consultancy Private Limited (PAN No. AAZCS9379Q) and (x) M/s Pahal Security Services Private Limited registered with the Registrar of Companies (R.O.C) vide CIN number 74900DL2010PTC197873, for commission of offence of Money Laundering as defined under Section 3 punishable under Section 4 of PMLA Act, 2002 to proceed in accordance with law.

4. The investigation under the prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 was initiated by recording ECIR No. RNSZO/12/2020 dated 30.05.2020 against the accused persons on the basis of information received that the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU), Dist. - Khunti, Jharkhand had registered several cases related to the offences of Human Trafficking wherein the charge-sheet has also been filed. These cases are FIR No. 15/2014 dt. 02.09.2014, FIR No. 24/2015 dt. 14.08.2015, FIR No. 06/2018 dt. 06.08.2018 and FIR No. 07/2019 dt. 19.07.2019.

5. Further, the FIR bearing No. 07/2019 dt. 19.07.2019 of Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) Jharkhand Police, Khunti has been taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Ranchi, Jharkhand and the said FIR was re-registered as R.C. 09/2020/NIA/DLI dt. 04.03.2020 wherein the NIA has filed first supplementary charge-sheet vide no. 09/2021 dated 27.02.2021 for violation of section 120B, 363, 370(2), 370(3), 370(4), 370(5), 370A, 371, 374, 376, 420 and 34 IPC, section 6 and 12 r/w section 25 of Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment Rules and Services of Condition) Act, 1979 and section 79 of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2015 against present petitioners, namely, Sunita Devi and Shiv Shankar Ganjhu, and against other co-accused persons, namely, Panna Lal Mahto @ Panna Lal Ganjhu, Gopal Oraon, who were running Human Trafficking racket in connivance with several placement agencies in Delhi.

6. Since Sections 120b,418,420,467,471 of IPC and Section 16 and 18 of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act,1976 registered under the FIR’s referred above are schedule offences under the Act 2002, hence to prevent Money Laundering related to proceeds of crime including its concealment or possession or acquisition or use or projecting as untainted property and claiming as untainted property enquiries were initiated under Act 2002 against the accused persons including the present petitioners and it was found that the accused persons have a