RAMESH MANGLANI Vs. DIRECTORATE OF ENFORCEMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of the present petition under Sec. 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ('Cr.P.C.' for short) read with Sec. 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 ('PMLA' for short), the petitioner seeks regular bail in proceedings arising from ECIR No. DLZO-II/35/2020/721 dtd. 24/9/2020 registered by the Enforcement Directorate ('ED' for short) under Ss. 3 and 4 of the PMLA.

(2.) The matter arises from FIR No. 1/2020 dtd. 1/1/2020 registered at P.S. Economic Offences Wing ('EOW' for short), in respect of the predicate offences alleged under Sec. 409, 467, 468, 471, 477A and 120B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ('IPC' for short). The FIR was registered on the complaint of one Mr. Vinod Rajagopalan in his capacity as the Authorised Signatory of M/s. Malav Holdings Private Limited ('MHL' for short), alleging that the accused persons had siphoned-off an amount of Rs.18.88 crores from one M/s. Ligare Aviation Limited ('Ligare Aviation' for short) in 2014-15 on the basis of fake/fictitious invoices.

(3.) The complainant company is stated to be aggrieved since it is an indirect shareholder in Ligare Aviation, in that the complainant company statedly holds 50% shares in RHC Holding Pvt. Ltd., which in turn holds a 30% stake in Ligare Aviation. Further, RHC Holding Pvt. Ltd. also holds 67.27% in RHC Finance Pvt. Ltd., which in turn holds the rest 70% in Ligare Aviation.