'Law no tool to prolong custody': Delhi court grants bail to man booked for defrauding US national

New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) A Delhi court has granted bail to a man booked in a money laundering case for allegedly defrauding a US national and said law couldn't be used to "unreasonably" prolong an accused's incarceration without trial.

Special judge Gaurav Rao granted bail to one Lakshay Vij, accused of defrauding a US citizen online by inducing her to transfer money from her account through a crypto currency wallet, The judge's March 19 order said the accused had already spent over five months in custody which was "enough" and any further pre-trial detention would "serve no purpose at all”.

The order added, "The law prefers bail over jail and the stringent provisions regarding the grant of bail such as provided under Section 45 (1) (ii) of the PMLA cannot become a tool to be used to incarcerate an accused without trial for an unreasonably long time." The fundamental rights under Article 21 (right to life) of the Constitution are paramount and cannot be subjugated to the statutory bar under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the judge said.

Though the court had "no doubt" that economic offences were serious, affecting the society, community and nation as a whole, it said gravity of the offence had to be considered not only from the facts and circumstances of the case but also from the severity of the punishment.

The maximum penalty for money laundering is seven years' jail.

The judge said there was no logical reasoning why the ED wanted to see the applicant, who was out on interim bail for about two-and-a-half months after spending more than five months in custody again behind the bar.

The order observed ED’s investigation was complete, prosecution complaint was filed, trial was yet to start and its conclusion in the near future wasn't "a fair possibility" There is no material on record to suggest that in these two-and-a-half months applicant has in any manner tried to influence the witnesses or jeopardise ED's case against him, the judge added.

The ED registered the case based on a CBI FIR alleging the accused defrauded the US citizen of Rs 3.39 crore online by misrepresenting and inducing her to transferring money from her account through crypto currency wallet.

USD 400,000 was converted into crypto currency and further transferred to crypto wallet of the accused persons.

The CBI alleged the applicant was instructing co-accused persons regarding transfer of crypto currencies, but the defence counsel opposed it and said the allegation was not substantiated by any material or evidence. PTI UK AMK

Source: PTI