A Single Bench of the Delhi High Court granted bail to Preeti Chandra in the Unitech Case and observed that sub-classifying women into different categories to apply twin conditions under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) is arbitrary.
The application was filed seeking a grant of bail in the complaint case pending before learned ASJ06, Special Judge (PMLA), Patiala House Court and the applicant is the wife of Sanjay Chandra who was the Director of M/s Unitech Group.
Between 2006 to 2022, 74 FIRs were registered by Delhi Police (and CBI, against Promoters of Unitech Group i.e. Ramesh Chandra, Ajay Chandra, and Sanjay Chandra and their associates under sections 34, 201, 406, 409, 120B, 420, etc. of Indian Penal Code, 1860 and under section 7, 7(A), 8,9,10,12 and 13 of Prevention of Corruption Act.
The applicant was also accused of incorporating, overseeing and managing a benami organization called Trikar Group alongside her husband, Mr. Sanjay Chandra. The funds obtained from illegal activities, which were kept in foreign accounts of Trikar Group in locations such as Cayman Islands, Singapore, and Mauritius, were illegally transferred to the tune of Rs. 401.07 crores to the accounts of Indian companies.
Siddharth Aggarwal, senior counsel appearing for the applicant contended that the twin conditions of section 45 PMLA are not applicable to the Applicant as she is a woman and falls within the proviso to section 45(1) PMLA which appears to further the constitutional mandate of Article 15(3) of the Constitution.
A Single Bench of the Delhi Court of Justice Jasmeet Singh observed that “Once the word „woman‟ has been used in the Proviso to Section 45(1) of PMLA, the Court is not to further sub-classify women into different categories and apply the twin condition of Section 45 to some category of women and to exclude some category of women from the twin condition of Section 45. Doing the same would be not only be violative of Article 14 of the Constitution but also be a great injustice to the intention of the Legislature.”
The Bench concluded by noting that the twin conditions of Section 45 of the PMLA will not be applicable to the applicant. The applicant has to satisfy the triple test which can be taken care of by imposing stringent conditions. The applicant has already been investigated for more than 13 occasions and has been in custody for more than 20 months.
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