Case Law Details
Rajeev Kumar Vs State Through Enforcement Directorate (Jharkhand High Court)
Jharkhand High Court held that bail granted as the petitioner was held to be not at ‘flight risk’ and also there was no possibility of tampering the evidence or influencing/ intimidating the witness.
Facts- The complainant alleged that the accused Rajiv Kumar consent in giving him a relief against a huge amount of Rs. 10 Crore as bribe for payment to different Government officials to minimize the issue and later on the said amount was reduced to Rs. 1 Crore. The complainant then forwarded the complaint to the Officer-in-Charge, Hare Street Police Station, Kolkata, as he is not willing to pay such amount as bribe and a trap was laid at Quest Mall, Beck Bagan Row, Kolkata and the accused was trapped red handed.
It reveals that the accused has indulged into criminal act relating to commission of cognizable offence under Section 7A of the P.C. Act along with Section 120-B and Section 384 of the Indian Penal Code which are scheduled offences under the PML Act and he is associated with the commission of offence of money laundering and helped them to amass illegal money and that money has been termed as “proceeds of crime” as defined under Section 2(i)(u) of PML Act, 2002 i.e. tainted money by commissioning of Scheduled offence under PML Act, 2002 and protect the same as untainted property which is an offence under Section 3 and punishable under Section 3 of the PML Act, 2002. Accordingly, present first information report has been instituted.
Conclusion- Held that the petitioner is a practicing advocate, in that circumstance, the liability of the petitioner for further investigation, interrogation and facing trial is not jeopardized and he is already held to be not at ‘flight risk’ and there is no possibility of tampering the evidence or influencing/intimidating the witnesses. It has been reported that in Hare Street P.S. Case No. 222 of 2022, the petitioner has already been granted bail and this case has been registered on the basis of that case, which is in view of the provisions of PML Act and the offence is also coming under the scheduled offence.
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