The Telangana High Court refused to grant the Anticipatory Bail to a person accused of Money Laundering worth Rs.1747.45 crores.
The petitioner, Mr Bhagavathula Venkat Ramana sought the anticipatory bail on the grounds that the petitioners are falsely implicated in the subject case. They have nothing to do with the alleged offences, which are false and baseless. The petitioners hail from respectable families having deep roots in the society. They never indulged in any crime including the subject crime. It is submitted that a present investigation is initiated by the Directorate of Enforcement, Hyderabad, on suspected commission of offence/s under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The lenders of M/s.VMC Systems Limited have unilaterally declared the account of the Company as ‘Fraud’, without even providing an opportunity of hearing to the petitioners and without providing ‘forensic audit report’, which formed the basis for the said declaration.
On the other hand, Enforcement Directorate, Hyderabad would contended that a huge amount of about Rs.1747.45 crores has been laundered/siphoned in this case. Since the offences in FIR are scheduled offences under the PML Act, the Directorate of Enforcement initiated money laundering investigation by registering the subject crime. Investigation revealed that the petitioners in both these Criminal Petitions indulged in money laundering offences by resorting to various dubious transactions of the Company, involving the shell/dummy entities incorporated by them and by other fraudsters.
The single bench of Justice Shameem Akther held that grant of anticipatory bail at the stage of investigation may frustrate the investigating agency in interrogating the petitioners/accused and in collecting the useful information and also the material, which might have been concealed. Success in such interrogation would escape, if the petitioners/accused knows that they are protected by the order of the Court. Grant of anticipatory bail, particularly in economic offences, would definitely hamper the effective investigation.
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