Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002
Section 45 read with Section 439 of CrPC—Bail—Consideration—At the stage of considering a bail application under the PML Act, the court has to bear in mind the following aspects: i. Whether the accused possessed the requisite mens rea; ii. The words used in Section 45 of the 2002 Act are “reasonable grounds for believing” which means the Court has to see only if there is a genuine case against the accused and the prosecution is not required to prove the charge beyond reasonable doubt; iii. A positive finding that the accused had not committed an offence under the Act is not required to be recorded; A delicate balance between a judgment of acquittal/conviction and an order granting bail much before commencement of the trial is to be maintained; iv. The evidence is not to be weighed meticulously but a finding is to be arrived at on the basis of broad probabilities with reference to the material collected during investigation. The weighing of evidence to find the guilt of the accused is the work of Trial Court; v. A finding is also required to be recorded as to the possibility of the bail applicant committing a crime after grant of bail—Such aspects has to be considered having regard to the antecedents of accused, his propensities and nature and manner in which he is alleged to have committed the offence.
[Paras 49 & 50]
Section 45 read with Section 439 of CrPC—Regular bail—Subsidy fraud in IFFCO—No material showing imports at inflated prices by IFFCO/IPL and consequent payment of higher subsidy and there appears to be a break in the money trails, therefore, the evidence to prove conspiracy or wrongful loss to IFFCO/IPL, its shareholder and to the public exchequer and resultant wrongful gain to the petitioner, is lacking—At this stage based upon the material produced before the court, it can be said that prima facie the predicate offence appears to be weak in nature and petitioner is entitled to the benefit of the same—Petitioner is also entitled to the benefit of the fact that main accused, as well as, some other accused have not been arrested and bail has already been granted to other co-accused—Investigation qua petitioner is complete—There are reasonable grounds for believing that petitioner is not guilty of offence and that he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail—Petitioner has made out a case for grant of regular bail—Application allowed.
[Para 92 to 104]
Section 50—Confessional statement of a co-accused under Section 50 of the PML Act is not a substantive piece of evidence and can be used only for the purpose of corroboration in support of other evidence to lend assurance to the Court in arriving at a conclusion of guilt.
[Para 62]