The offence of money laundering under the PMLA is independent, and involvement in proceeds of crime suffices for liability; stringent conditions for bail must be met.

JUDGMENT :

SUJIT NARAYAN PRASAD, J.

Prayer:

1. The instant application has been filed under Section 45 of PMLA, 2002 read with Sections 483 and 484 of the Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 praying for grant of regular bail in connection with ECIR Case No.06 of 2023, arising out of ECIR/RNZO/25/2023 registered under Section 3 punishable under Section 4 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

Factual Matrix of the Case:

2. The prosecution story in brief as per the allegation made in the instant ECIR/complaint reads as under:

3. The petitioner has been arrayed as an accused in the suppl. Prosecution complaint in the aforesaid ECIR case alleging therein that Petitioner worked as a deed searcher at the Registrar of Assurances, Kolkata and co-accused Sanjeet Kumar worked as a sweeper/watchman at Registrar of Assurance on Contractual basis and both had access to the original records and were involved in supplying blank pages and original volumes from the registrar of assurance Kolkata. Both co-accused were in direct contact with co- accused Irshad Akhtar and provided original registers/blank pages of original volumes for making fake deed. an amount of Rs. 21,43,000/- has been identified to be credited in bank account of Petitioner by way of bank Transfers or Cash Deposits in lieu of providing assistance to the accused persons of Syndicate.

4. Further proceeds of crime have also been identified in the bank account of Sanjeet Kumar. An amount of Rs. 80,000 has been identified in his bank account which have been deposited by the accused persons of the land grabbing syndicate.

5. In addition to the said cash deposits have also been identified in his bank account, the accused person Md. Irshad was involved in writing a separate fake deed no. 2376 of 1940 through his deceased associate Maqbool, which is part of the above stated 4.83 acres property and deed no. 3954 of 1974 (for above stated 4.83 acres property through his associate Allauddin, since deceased).

6. Md. Irshad made fake entries in original Panji-II registers for above stated4.83 acres property, in association with Bhanu Pratap Prasad, Md. Saddam Hussain, Bipin Singh and others. He wrote backdated fake mutation correction slips related to the above stated 4.83 acres property in the name of Samrendra Chandra Ghoshal. Md. Irshad also wrote fake deed No. 3985 of 1940 for the above stated property admeasuring 6.34 acres. The scrutiny of Axis bank account 918010066076941 and 913110039978433 of Mohammad Irshad reveals a payment of Rs. 8,74,500 through the above- named accused persons namely Md. Saddam Hussain, Afshar Ali and others.

7. In the background of aforesaid facts, the present petitioner had been arrested on 09.05.2024 and thereafter the petitioner had preferred the Misc. Cri. Application No.1572 of 2024 for grant of his bail but the same was dismissed vide order dated 21.05.2024 passed by the learned Additional Judicial Commissioner-I-cum-Spl. Judge, PMLA, Ranchi.

Hence, the present petition has been preferred for the grant of regular bail.

Argument on behalf of the learned counsel for the petitioner:

8. Mr. Sunil Kumar Upadhyay, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner has taken the following grounds:

i. The petitioner is innocent and has falsely been implicated in this case as he has committed no offence as alleged in the prosecution complaint.

ii. The ground has been taken that admittedly the petitioner worked as a deed searcher at Registrar of Assurances, Kolkata and co-accused Sanjeet Kumar worked as a Sweeper/Watchman at Registrar of Assurance on contractual basis.

iii. The petitioner has not involved in concealment possession, acquisition or projecting as untainted property or claiming as untainted property in any manner.

iv. It has also been alleged in the complaint that the petitioner had not provided any assistance to co-accused persons, Tapas Ghosh, Irshad Akhtar and others.

It has also been alleged that the petitioner worked as deed searcher at the Registra