The Patiala House Court of Delhi on Friday granted bail to Unitech's former promoters, Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra, in connection with a money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The Additional Sessions Judge Dheeraj Mor, while granting bail, said that in the instant case, both applicants have been languishing in jail for the last two and a half years, though the trial of the case has not yet commenced.
The maximum punishment in this case is 7 years, and they have already undergone a substantial part of the maximum punishment that can be awarded to them in this case. There are 71 accused persons, 121 witnesses, and lakhs of supporting. documents in the complaint.
Considering the humongous set of documents, enormous prosecution witnesses and huge number of accused persons coupled with the fact that the trial in this case has not yet commenced despite passage of more than 2 years, there is no hesitation to record that its trial may go beyond 7 years, i.e. even more than maximum punishment of this case.
The purpose of pre-trial detention can never be punitive. Detention or jail before being pronounced guilty of an offence should not become punishment without trial. The trial in this case cannot be concluded within a foreseeable time, said the Court.
The co-accused persons, namely Preeti Chandra and Rajesh Malik. have already been enlarged on bail after they suffered incarceration for nearly one and a half years.
The allegations against the applicants and the roles assigned to them are dissimilar and grave to those of the said co-accused persons.
However, in the wake of the above discussions regarding the evidentiary value of the material available on record against them, there seems to be enough justifiable reason for invoking the principles of parity in favour of both applicants, who have already undergone two and a half years of incarceration in this case, with a maximum punishment of 7 years, added the court.
According to the Directorate of Enforcement, present ECIR registered 2018 based on several FIRs registered by Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police and Saket Police station under Sections 406/409/1208/420/34 IPC on the allegations of layering and laundering of home-buyers money in the projects of the said company, i.e. Proceeds of Crime derived or obtained as a result of criminal activity relating to the said scheduled or predicate offences.
The court noted that the ED filed first prosecution compliant in this ECIR under Section 44 read with Section 45 of PMLA for the offence under Section 3 and punishable under Section 4 of PMLA against 17 accused persons, including 14 companies and three individuals namely Ramesh Chandra, Preeti Chandra and Rajesh Malik, before this court on December 2, 2021, and its cognizance was taken on December 22, 2021.
Both the applicants were arrested in this ECIR on December 20, 2021, and a supplementary prosecution complaint against 54 additional accused persons, including both the applicants herein under the said sections, was filed in court on February 17, 2022, i.e., within 60 days of the arrest of the applicants.
On the same date, i.e., February 17, 2022, this court took cognizance of the said supplementary prosecution complaint and observed that there is sufficient material available on record to proceed against the accused persons arraigned in it.
(ANI)
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