KUNTAL GHOSH Vs. ENFORCEMENT DIRECTORATE KOLKATA ZONAL OFFICE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner seeks parity with co-accused Manik Bhattacharyya who was granted bail by this Court on 12/9/2024. The present ECIR was registered for investigation of offence under The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (hereinafter referred to as the Act of 2002) on 26/6/2022 following the FIR registered by the CBI on 9/6/2022. Allegation against the petitioner is under Sec. 7/7A/8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act read with Sec. 120B/420/467/468/471/34 of the Indian Penal Code. The petitioner was arrested on 21/1/2023 and is in custody dill date.

(2.) To substantiate the prayer for bail of the petitioner, learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted as hereunder:-

(3.) The petitioner is in custody for about twenty-two months upon being implicated on the basis of the statement of co-accused Tapas Kumar Mondal. Six complaints were filed by the Enforcement Directorate (hereinafter referred to as the E.D.) in this case and the petitioner was named for the first time in the third complaint. Further investigation is still in progress and there is no chance of disposal of the case in near future. There are three hundred witnesses who need to be examined to prove the case and thousands of pages of documents to be proved. The petitioner was lastly interrogated in judicial custody before one year and eight months and not any further till date.