The Allahabad High Court refused to grant bail to the Managing director, Anil Kumar Sharma in connection with a multi-crore scam
The applicant filed the bail application who is Managing Director of Amrapali Group of Companies (fourteen in numbers) after his application for bail got rejected by Special Judge/Sessions Court PMLA, Lucknow.
This case is one of the classic cases which would reveal the true story that how a real estate company/builder in active connivance and collaboration with the financial institution, government authorities, and functionaries can defraud, cheat, dishonestly misappropriated, and diverted the funds to the extent of thousand crores collected from home/flat buyers and shatter their cherished dream to have their own house, a dream of every middle call person of this country and leave them completely high and dry.
Several flat/home buyers had approached the National Consumer Complaint Redressal Forum by filing consumer complaints against the builder. Bank of Baroda, one of the financial institutions which lend money to the Amrapali Group of Companies, filed a Company Petition before the NCLT under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 for triggering the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process in the matter of M/s. Amrapali Silicon City Private Limited.
The NCLT appointed the Interim Resolution Professional. Moratorium was declared restricting the institution of any suits, execution of any judgment, decree or order, transferring, encumbering, alienating any assets of the corporate debtor. Proceedings were also instituted under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement and Security Interest Act, 2002.
All these companies are run by the almost same set of Directors including the accused-applicant and Mr. Shiv Priya. The accused-applicant was the Managing Director of most of the companies and he is the kingpin in defrauding, cheating, misappropriating, and diverting and parking funds in bogus and sham companies including foreign companies.
The single-judge bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh clarified that Section 45 of the PMLA makes the offense of money laundering cognizable and non-bailable notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
Money laundering is a serious economic offence and serious threat to the national economy and national interest and, these offences are committed with cool calculation with the motive of personal gain regardless of the consequences on the society, the court added.
Therefore, the court after considering the order passed by the Supreme Court, in which involvement of the accused in the offense has been meticulously flagged, his conduct before the Supreme Court and, the fact that the investigation is still on and money trail has to be completely unearthed, it would not be appropriate to enlarge the accused on bail. Therefore, the plea for bail is refused and the bail application is rejected.
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