The Delhi High Court granted bail to Dubai based businessman Ramesh Mangalani under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) on allegation of siphoning off amount by fake invoices.
By way of the present petition under section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 read with section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), the petitioner seeks regular bail in proceedings arising from case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under Sections 3 and 4 of the PMLA.
The FIR was registered on the complaint of Vinod Rajagopalan in his capacity as the Authorised Signatory of M/s. Malav Holdings Private Limited (MHL), alleging that the accused persons had siphoned-off an amount of Rs.18.88 crores from one M/s. Ligare Aviation Limited (Ligare Aviation) in 2014-15 on the basis of fake/fictitious invoices.
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 summoned by the ED on 05.04.2022 to join investigation and joined investigation on 07.04.2022. The petitioner was subsequently arrested by the investigating agency on 03.08.2022 from his residence in Mumbai.
The main thrust of the petitioner’s submission is that the petitioner exercised no control over the affairs of Phoenix FZC and that he was neither an employee, nor did he hold any key position in the management of the company. Moreover, it was contended that the petitioner had no knowledge as regards the nature of the transactions and was only functioning as an Authorised Signatory to operate the bank account of Phoenix FZC, and was acting on instructions received from Sahil Mehta and Sohan Mehta, who were his family friends.
It was further submitted that the petitioner’s wife was appointed as the General Manager of Phoenix FZC at the time of establishing the company, since a resident of the UAE is required for purposes of setting-up a company in that country. The petitioner was only appointed as the Authorised Signatory for managing the banking operations of Phoenix FZC as he was residing in the UAE.
A Single Bench of the Delhi High Court of Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani observed that “In the circumstances, for the purpose of grant of regular bail to the petitioner, this court is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the petitioner is not guilty of the offence under section 3 of the PMLA. “
“Further, considering that the prosecution complaint has been filed before the learned trial court; that the petitioner has materially co-operated in the investigation; and in view of the nature of the alleged role played by the petitioner in the allegedly offending transactions, this court is also satisfied that the petitioner is not likely to commit any offence under PMLA while on bail” the Court concluded.
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