SANJAY SINGH Vs. DIRECTORATE OF ENFORCEMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of present application under Sec. 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ('Cr.P.C.') read with Ss. 45 and 65 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 ('PMLA'), the applicant Sh. Sanjay Singh seeks grant of regular bail in case arising out of ECIR No. ECIR/HIU-II/14/2022, registered under Ss. 3 and 4 of PMLA.

(2.) The present case has been registered by the Directorate of Enforcement in relation to the predicate offence case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation ('CBI'). On 17/8/2022, an FIR i.e. RC0032022A0053 had been registered by the CBI for offences punishable under Sec. 120B read with Sec. 447A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ('IPC') and Sec. 7 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, ('PC Act') on the basis of a complaint dtd. 20/7/2022 made by the Lieutenant Governor, GNCTD and the directions of competent authority conveyed by Director, Ministry of Home Affairs ('MHA'), Government of India, through letter dtd. 22/7/2022 and also based on some sourced information, in relation to the irregularities committed in framing and implementation of excise policy of GNCTD for the year 2021-2022. The CBI had filed a chargesheet dtd. 25/11/2022, cognizance of which was taken by the learned Trial Court on 15/12/2022. Thereafter, on 25/4/2023 and 8/7/2023, two supplementary chargesheets had also been filed before the learned Trial Court respectively, against a total of 16 accused persons. It is the case of CBI that while the excise policy of GNCTD was at the stage of formulation or drafting, the accused persons had hatched a criminal conspiracy, in furtherance of which some loopholes had intentionally been left or created in the policy, which were meant to be utilized or exploited later on. Further, huge amount of money was paid as kickbacks in advance to the public servants involved in the commission of alleged offences and in exchange of undue pecuniary benefits to the conspirators involved in the liquor trade. As alleged, kickbacks of around Rs.20.0030 crores in advance were paid to accused Vijay Nair, Sh. Manish Sisodia and some other persons belonging to the ruling political party in Delhi, and the other public servants involved in conspiracy by some persons in the liquor business from South India and these kickbacks were found to have been returned back to them subsequently out of the profit margins of wholesalers holding L-l licenses and also through the credit notes issued by the L-l licensees to the retail zone licensees (L-7Z) related to the South liquor lobby. It is further alleged that as a result of criminal conspiracy, a cartel was formed between three components of the said policy, i.e. liquor manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, by violating provisions and the spirit of liquor policy, and all the conspirators had played an active role to achieve the illegal objectives of the said criminal conspiracy, result in huge losses to the Government exchequer and undue pecuniary benefits to the public servants and other accused involved in the said conspiracy.

(3.) The present ECIR No. ECIR/HIU-II/14/2022 was registered, as offences under Sec. 120B and Sec. 7 of the PC Act are scheduled offences under PMLA. The first prosecution complaint by the Directorate of Enforcement was filed on 26/11/2022 and the cognizance was taken by the learned Trial Court on 20/12/2022. Thereafter, Directorate of Enforcement had filed four supplementary prosecution complaints on 6/1/2023, 6/4/2023, 27/4/2023, and 4/5/2023 before the learned Trial Court.