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2023 (11) TMI 903

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..... on 45 of the PMLA Act. It is well settled that the court is only required to look at the prima facie case and is not required to look into the test of guilt. It is required to maintain a delicate balance between the judgment of acquittal and conviction and an order granting bail before commencement of trial - In the present case, the entire transaction of the company is on website and the mode of payment is also by Bank. None of the customers were claiming any default by the company prior to freezing of the account of the company by Bank. Therefore, there is absolutely no material against the petitioner. As such, the petitioner who has no role in the alleged crime is entitled to be released on bail. This Court is inclined to grant bail to the petitioner with conditions imposed - Accordingly, it is directed that the court in seisin over the matter shall release the Petitioner on bail in the aforesaid case on stringent terms and conditions imposed - application disposed off. - DR. JUSTICE S.K. PANIGRAHI Advocates appeared in this case through Hybrid Arrangement Mode: For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Tanmay Mishra, Adv. For Opposite Party (s) : Mr. G. Agarwal, Adv. .....

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..... oduct voucher have not been supplied till date. The informant had joined the Company with a belief that it is a product based business, but instead of getting the products, the informant was getting money every month. On the basis of above allegation FIR was lodged as Sahadevkhunta P.S. Case No. 118 of 2009 against officials of M/s FIPL for commission of offences under section 406/420/468/471/34 of IPC and section 4/5/6 of Prize Chit and Money Circulations Scheme (Banning) Act, 1978 and investigation started. 4. On the very next day, the said FIR no.118/09 registered on the complaint of Niranjan Sahu was transferred to the Crime Branch and FIR no.17/09 was registered at P.S. CB-CID u/s 406/420/468/471/34 IPC and Sections 4, 5 6 of the Prize Chits Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978. 5. In course of investigation of the aforesaid case, one Writ Petition was preferred by President of M/s All India Networks Welfare Trust, a registered trust of duped and gullible thousands and thousands of investors of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, with a prayer to protect the fund of investors. This Court in the aforesaid Writ Petition bearing WP(C) No. 7693 of 2011 vid .....

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..... any, the Company had also been sharing the profits generated by them with their respective Customers which were paid on monthly basis subject to such profits made and no such deposit had ever been taken from any of the Customer nor any fixed income had been promised on monthly basis. 12. The said facility was available only for a period of one year and within the said period, the concerned Customer was duty bound to take delivery of the cloth materials, and if within the period of one year the Customer so chooses, then he was entitled to claim refund of amounts paid by him which were refunded by the Company on the terms and conditions already published on their website. 13. In the year 2009 the first FIR was lodged which was registered as Sahadev khunta P.S Case No. 118 of 2009. Since 2009 till date different investigation agencies have investigated the matter and subsequently in obedience to the order of the SP, CB CID, Orissa, the DSP, CID CB, Cuttack Orissa took charge of investigation of the case from IIC Sahadev khunta PS. On basis of the said FIR, Enforcement Directorate, registered an ECIR for the purpose of the investigation under the provisions of PMLA. None of the i .....

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..... erefore, there is absolutely no material against the petitioner. As such, the petitioner who has no role in the alleged crime is entitled to be released on bail. 18. Orissa High Court in the Writ Petition bearing WP(C) No. 7693 of 2011 vide its order dtd. 12.12.2012 was pleased to direct that the investigation of the case be handed over to CBI and the Crime Branch shall assist the CBI in the investigation. Accordingly. RC 2(E) of 2013 Kol was registered on 1.3.2013 and CBI investigated the case. In course of investigation the accounts of the Company were freezed. The accused persons were also co-operating with the investigation. After completion of investigation the 10 submitted charge sheet did 14.12.2016 and kept the investigation open. Subsequently investigation has been completed and final charge sheet has been filed by CBI. The petitioner was never arrested by the CBI and had cooperated in the investigation. The petitioner was remanded to custody when he surrendered before the Court. In the meantime the petitioner has been granted hail by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the CBI case. 19. As per allegation made in the F.I.R., so also statement of the witnesses no offence .....

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..... BAIL APPLN. 1762/2022, CRL.M.(BAIL) 182/2023 (Delhi High Court) , the Delhi High Court held as follows: 30. The jurisprudence of the bail positively lays down that a liberty of a person should not ordinarily been interfered with unless there exist cogent grounds. Despite, the twin conditions, it is not necessary that at the stage of bail, the Court has to come to the conclusion that the Applicant is not guilty for such an offence. The Court is at the stage of has to examine the case on the scale of broad probabilities. The Court at this stage is required to record an objective finding on the basis of material available on record and no other purpose. 33. It is an admitted case that the Applicant was not an accused in the predicate offence. The Applicant s name also did not appear in the ECIR and in the first complaint filed by the E.D the name or role of the accused was not mentioned. It may again be reiterated even at the cost of the brevity that even as per the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary (Supra) though, the twin conditions provided under Section 45 of 2002 Act, restrict the right of accused to grant of bail but cannot be said that the conditions provided under Section .....

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