The court established that under the PMLA, an accused can be convicted for money laundering even if not formally accused in the predicate offense, emphasizing the independent and serious nature of economic crimes.

JUDGMENT :

SUJIT NARAYAN PRASAD, J.

Prayer:

1. The instant application has been filed under Section 4 83 and 484 of the Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 praying for grant of 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 (herein referred as Act2002).

Factual Matrix of the Case:

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

The petitioner was involved in preparation of fake deeds, falsification of government records and tampering with revenue registers to acquire and dispose of landed properties as a member of syndicate which comprises of Md. Saddam Hussain, Afshar Ali, Bhanu Pratap Prasad and others. The said accused person also involved in preparation of fake deeds for acquiring properties admeasuring 4.83 acres at Cheshire Home Road, Ranchi. As per the present circle rates of the urban residential properties, the value of the land admeasuring 483 decimals stands at Rs.22.69 crores @ Rs.4,68,291/- per decimal. The petitioner along with Tapas Ghosh who was directly a party with the accused persons namely, Afshar Ali, Md. Saddam Hussain, Priya Ranjan Sahay and others have assisted them in their activities related acquisition, possession and use to of proceeds of crime and projected the said illegally acquired lands as untainted properties.

During further investigation, the role of the three persons namely, Md. Irshad, Sanjit Kumar (petitioner) and Tapas Ghosh emerged in the forgery in relation to the above stated properties. Tapas Ghosh worked as a deed searcher at the Registrar of Assurances, Kolkata and petitioner Sanjit Kumar worked as a Sweeper/Watchman at Registrar of Assurances, Kolkata on contractual basis. The accused Tapas Ghosh and Sanjeet Kumar were involved in supplying blank pages and original volumes from the Registrar Assurances, Kolkata. They were in direct contact with accused Irshad Akhtar and provided original registers for making fake deed. An amount of Rs.21,43,000/ has been identified to be credited in the bank account of Tapas Ghosh by way of Bank Transfers or cash deposits in lieu of providing assistance to the accused persons of the stated Syndicate.

Further proceeds of crime have also been identified in the bank account of petitioner, Sanjeet Kumar, an amount of Rs. 60,000/- has been identified in his bank account which have been deposited by the accused persons of the land grabbing Syndicate and also some amounts were transferred in Bank account of Irshad who used to prepare fake deed of landed property.

The present petitioner had been arrested and accordingly the petitioner had preferred the Misc. Cri. Application No.1858 of 2024 for grant of his bail but the same was dismissed vide order dated 15.07.2024 passed by the learned Additional Judicial Commissioner-I-cum-Spl. Judge, PML Act, Ranchi.

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

Argument on behalf of the learned counsel for the petitioner:

3. Mr. R.S. Mazumdar, learned senior 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 offenc