The Chhattisgarh High Court refused to grant bail on failure to satisfy twin conditions under section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, (PMLA).
The applicant, Mr Laxmikant Tiwari filed a bail application for a grant of regular bail against the arrest in connection with an offence punishable under Sections 3 & 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
During a search and seizure action under Section 132 of the Income Tax Act conducted on 30.06.2022 Mr. Suryakant Tiwari at a hotel room of Hotel Sheraton Grand, Bengaluru, certain incriminating materials are said to have been found, based upon which a complaint was lodged by the Income Tax Department at Police Station Bengaluru alleging offences under Sections 186, 204 and 353 read with Section120B of the IPC which led to the registration of the FIR. During the course of the investigation, the applicant was summoned and arrested on 13.10.2022.
The prosecution stated that the prosecution has recovered diaries from the possession of Smt. Soumya Chourasiya and the main accused- Suryakant Tiwari, which would reveal transactions of cash between Smt. Soumya Chourasiya and the main accused- Suryakant Tiwari.
In the case of Laxmikant Tiwari, the High Court of Karnataka has recorded that
“no case has been registered against the petitioner in Crime No. 129/2022 and prosecution initiated any proceeding based upon this crime number and the petitioner is not an accused in Crime No. 129/2022, as such, the offence took place at Bengaluru in Crime No. 129/2022 cannot be predicated offence for registering a case under PMLA, 2002 by the ED at Chhattisgarh wherein the applicant along with co-accused Suryakant Tiwari and others are being charged for involving in a money laundering case and the present applicant has been arrested in money laundering case along with co-accused, therefore, even if it is presumed (not accepting it in absence of any better material on record or order from the competent court) that no predicate offence has been levelled, therefore, the applicant is entitled to get bail under PMLA, 2002, is not acceptable and deserves to be rejected.”
A single judge bench of Justice Narendra Kumar Vyas observed that the applicant is unable to satisfy twin conditions for the grant of bail under Section 45 of the PMLA, 2002 and cannot grant bail to the applicant.
Accordingly, the bail application filed under Section 439 of the Cr.P.C. was rejected.
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