SC Grants PMLA Bail in REET Paper Leak Case After Prolonged Custody

Ramkripal Meena Vs Directorate of Enforcement (Supreme Court of India)

Summary: The Supreme Court granted conditional bail to Ramkripal Meena in proceedings arising from an Enforcement Directorate investigation into alleged money laundering connected with the 2021 Rajasthan Eligibility Examination for Teachers (REET) question-paper leak. The petition challenged the Rajasthan High Court order dated 16 February 2024. The petitioner had been arrested by the ED on 21 June 2023 in ECIR/HIU-II/05/2022, while the prosecution complaint was pending before the Special Court at Jaipur.

The underlying FIR alleged that the petitioner, who worked as a school manager and assistant to the REET examination coordinator, had access to the question papers and was involved in leaking them to co-accused. The order records allegations of a promised ₹5 crore payment and recoveries aggregating ₹1,77,80,000, including ₹46 lakh from the petitioner. The Supreme Court had previously granted him bail in the predicate FIR on 18 January 2023, subject to conditions concerning attachment of immovable property.

The ED complaint also referred to a separate FIR involving serious offences, but the Court recorded that the petitioner had not been chargesheeted in that matter. It therefore treated the Section 420 IPC allegation arising from the REET paper leak as the only scheduled offence against him. The money-laundering case was at the stage of framing charges and proposed to examine 24 witnesses. With the petitioner having spent more than one year in custody and no likelihood of an early conclusion of trial, the Court held that the rigours of Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act could be suitably relaxed in the peculiar circumstances.