BAIL APPLN. 3611/2022 Page 1 of 42

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI

Date of decision: 30^th May, 2023

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BAIL APPLN. 3611/2022

RAMESH MANGLANI

..... Petitioner

Through:

Mr.

Siddharth

Aggarwal,

Senior

Advocate with Mr. Arjun Dewan, Ms.

Sowjhanya Shankaran and Mr. Akash

Arora, Advocates.

versus

DIRECTORATE OF ENFORCEMENT

..... Respondent

Through:

Mr. Zoheb Hossain, Special Counsel

with Mr. Vivek Gumani and Mr.

Baibhav, Advocates

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ANUP JAIRAM BHAMBHANI

J U D G M E N T

ANUP JAIRAM BHAMBHANI J.

Introduction

By way of the present petition under section 439 of the Code of

Criminal Procedure, 1973 („Cr.P.C.‟ for short) read with section 45 of

the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 („PMLA‟ for short),

the petitioner seeks regular bail in proceedings arising from ECIR No.

DLZO-II/35/2020/721

dated

24.09.2020

registered

by

the

Enforcement Directorate („ED‟ for short) under Sections 3 and 4 of

the PMLA.

2.

The matter arises from FIR No. 1/2020 dated 01.01.2020 registered at

P.S. Economic Offences Wing („EOW‟ for short), in respect of the

predicate offences alleged under sections 409, 467, 468, 471, 477A

and 120B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 („IPC‟ for short). The FIR

Digitally Signed

By:NEERAJ

Signing Date:30.05.2023

14:40:09

Signature Not Verified

BAIL APPLN. 3611/2022 Page 2 of 42

was registered on the complaint of one Mr. Vinod Rajagopalan in his

capacity as the Authorised Signatory of M/s. Malav Holdings Private

Limited („MHL‟ for short), alleging that the accused persons had

siphoned-off an amount of Rs.18.88 crores from one M/s. Ligare

Aviation Limited („LigareAviation‟ for short) in 2014-15 on the basis

of fake/fictitious invoices.

3.

The complainant company is stated to be aggrieved since it is an

indirect shareholder in Ligare Aviation, in that the complainant

company statedly holds 50% shares in RHC Holding Pvt. Ltd., which

in turn holds a 30% stake in Ligare Aviation. Further, RHC Holding

Pvt. Ltd. also holds 67.27% in RHC Finance Pvt. Ltd., which in turn

holds the rest 70% in Ligare Aviation.

4.

The petitioner, who is admittedly a resident of Dubai, arrived in India

on 02.04.2022, when he was intimated by the immigration authorities

about a look-out-circular issued against him. The petitioner was

summonsed by the ED on 05.04.2022 to join investigation. He joined

investigation on 07.04.2022.The petitioner was subsequently arrested

by the investigating agency on 03.08.2022 from his residence in

Mumbai.

5.

The petitioner had previously filed a petition seeking bail before the

learned trial court, which came to be dismissed on 31.08.2022.

Thereafter, the petitioner filed a petition bearing Bail Application No.

2658/2022 before this court, which was withdrawn by the petitioner

vide order dated 13.10.2022 with liberty to file for the same relief

before the learned ASJ, Patiala House Courts, New Delhi since the

respondent had filed the prosecution complaint before that court on

Digitally Signed

By:NEERAJ

Signing Date:30.05.2023

14:40:09

Signature Not Verified

BAIL APPLN. 3611/2022 Page 3 of 42

01.10.2022. A second bail application filed before the learned ASJ

was also dismissed on 26.11.2022.

Brief Facts

6.

A brief conspectus of the facts and allegations leading-up to the filing

of the present bail petition is as follows :

6.1.As per the FIR, the accused persons hatched a conspiracy “to

cheat the complainant company” by siphoning-off funds from

the bank accounts ofLigare Aviation, causing a loss to the tune

of Rs.18.88 crores to the complainant company.

6.2.The FIR was registered against