Odisha Honey Trap Case: Orissa HC rejects anticipatory bail to Khageswar Patra on failure to comply S.45 PMLA

The Orissa High Court rejected the anticipatory bail to Khageswar Patra, an accused in the Odisha Honey Trap case on failure to comply Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act,2002 (PMLA).

Fifteen girls were involved in the racket which allegedly blackmailed and honey-trapped rich and influential people including politicians with the threat that their intimate pictures would be released to the public.

Odisha Police has seized assets worth Rs 30 crore from one Archana Nag who was recently arrested for allegedly honey trapping and blackmailing several people, including politicians and those from the film industry. Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested Archana's business partner Khageswar Patra in the case.

Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act made offences to be cognizable and non-bailable and no person accused of an offence shall be released on bail or on his own bond unless the Public Prosecutor is given the opportunity to oppose the application for such release and where the Public Prosecutor opposes the application, the court is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accused is not likely to commit any offence while on bail.

The counsel for the petitioner submitted that although the petitioner has some transaction with co-accused persons, but that is on account of friendly loan and he has already returned back such money to the co-accused persons and the petitioner is admittedly a second-hand vehicle dealer and he has nothing to do with the co-accused persons nor has he committed any offence of money laundering.

The Court of Justice G Satapathy observed that “Admittedly, the counsel for the ED has opposed the bail application of the petitioner, but nothing was submitted on behalf of the petitioner to counter the submission of the learned counsel for the ED to satisfy the conditions as provided in Section 45(1)(ii) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.”

The Court rejected the anticipatory bail taking into consideration the nature and gravity of allegation raised against the petitioner and the consequent failure of the petitioner to satisfy this Court the mandatory conditions of Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and taking into consideration the law laid down by the Apex Court in Vijay Madan Lal Choudhury and others v. Union of India.

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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