Point of Law: Grant of anticipatory bail to some extent interferes in the sphere of investigation of an offence and hence, the court must be circumspect while exercising such power for grant of anticipatory bail.

JUDGMENT :

1. Heard Sri Anuj Tandon, learned counsel for the applicant, Sri Shiv P. Shukla, learned counsel for the Enforcement Directorate and perused the material placed on record.

2. The present anticipatory bail application has been filed on behalf of the applicant in Complaint Case No.15 of 2019, E.C.I.R. No. ECIR/15/PMLA/LZO/2010, under Section 3/4 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 at Police Station-Directorate Enforcement, District Lucknow with a prayer to enlarge him on anticipatory bail.

3. The applicant is stated to have moved an anticipatory bail application before the Special Judge, PMLA Lucknow, which was rejected by it vide order dated 07.01.2022.

Facts in Brief

4. The Enforcement Directorate lodged an ECIR on 26.08.2010 in pursuance of the schedule offence bearing F.I.R. No. RC-8A/2007 dated 31.03.2007. After issuance of provisional attachment order No.01 of 2016 dated 28.03.2016, a complaint under Sections 44 and 45 of P.M.L.A., 2002 has been filed against the applicant and other co-accused persons for an offence under Sections 3/4 of P.M.L.A., 2002.

5. In pursuance of F.I.R. No. RC-8A/2007, under Sections 120B, 420, 467, 468 and 471 IPC and Section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, several charge-sheets have been filed against different co-accused persons including the one against the applicant and his brother Ashwani Kumar Shukla along with one other co-accused person.

6. As per the F.I.R. lodged by the C.B.I./A.C.B., Lucknow in 2007 during the period of 14.11.2005 to 7.11.2016, V.K. Srivastava, Senior Manager, R.K. Mishra, Senior Manager, Naresh Chandra Bhardwaj, Senior Manager, Dinesh Kumar, Clerk of Bank of India and Vikram Dixit entered into a criminal conspiracy with some unknown persons and got sanctioned 08 housing loans on the basis of false and fictitious documents such as I.T.R., PAN, Sale Deeds, Voter I.D. etc. The said loan accounts turned NPA in the name of non existent borrowers causing a loss to the tune of Rs.1.17 crores approximately to the Bank of India in lieu of wrongful gain. During investigation, proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs.19,49,000/- in the form of movable/immovable property was attached and was confirmed by Adjudicating Authority vide order dated 16.09.2016. The applicant-Anirudh Kamal Shukla is stated to have entered into a criminal conspiracy with R.K. Mishra, Senior Branch Manger Credit and Vinny Sodhi @ Vikram Dixit and applied for sanction of an overdraft limit of Rs.24.60 lakhs for the business purpose against the mortgage of property of Ram Nath Sharma and applied jointly along with the name of his brother Ashwani Kamal Shukla by submitting fake ITRs, PAN Card, NEC, Valuation Report in respect of property mortgaged, mutation certificate, will and sale deed. The investigation revealed that Rs.25,000/- was transferred to the current account of the applicant on 06.11.2006, which was utilized in business and the same is stated to have been admitted by the applicant.

Rival Contentions

7. Learned counsel for the applicant has stated that he has no previous criminal history except the present complaint cases and the predicate offence filed against him. There is no possibility of the applicant fleeing from justice or directly or indirectly inducing, threat or promise to any person. The present ECIR has been registered purely on the basis of predicate offence bearing F.I.R. No.RC-81/2007 dated 31.03.2007. The charge-sheet has been filed against the applicant and the other co-accused persons in the case filed by C.B.I. and the applicant is already on bail in it vide order dated 28.10.2010 passed by this Court in Bail No.8010 of 2010.

8. Learned counsel for the applicant has further stated that the predicate offence relates to OD mortgaged loan account opened in the name of his brother Ashwani Kumar Shukla with the Bank of India, Harsh Nagar, Kanpur. The property mortgage is found to be fake. The loan is alleged to have been applied by Ashwani Kumar Shukla along