SC Grants Bail To Sunil Kumar Agrawal, Promoter Of Indermani Group

The Supreme Court of India recently enlarged Sunil Kumar Agrawal (Promoter of Indermani Group of Companies) on regular bail in a money laundering case.

Bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Ujjal Bhuyan passed the order in a Special Leave Petition filed against the order of dismissal of bail application passed by the High Court of Chhattisgarh, filed under section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 read with section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

The Supreme Court had previously released Agrawal on interim bail vide order dated May 17, 2024 and had noted that the Petitioner had made out a prima facie strong case for his enlargement on interim bail. During the course of proceedings, the Supreme Court has also observed that 'PMLA case a parasite, needs predicate offence'.

During the yesterday’s hearing, the previous interim order passed by the Supreme Court was made absolute. It is a very pertinent order as it witnesses the application of the ruling of the decision of the Full Bench of the Supreme Court in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary and Others vs. Union of India and Others; (2022) SCC Online SC 929 wherein the Supreme Court had held that existence of a predicate offence is a pre-requisite for proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 to continue.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas Team (comprising Nikhil Varshney, Partner; Sriharsh Raj and Kartik Sharma; Associates) were involved as filing and briefing counsel before the High Court of Chhattisgarh and as briefing counsel before the Supreme Court. The SLP was drawn by CAM team.