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TMI Blog2024 (10) TMI 1640X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 75 - SUPREME COURT], the Hon'ble Supreme Court has held that "at the stage of granting of bail, the Court can only go into the question of prima facie case established for granting bail, it cannot go into the question of credibility and reliability of witnesses put up by the prosecution. The question of credibility and reliability of prosecution witnesses can only be tested during trial." The requirement of Section 19 of the PMLA, 2002 is completely satisfied. In criminal activity of using the benami bank accounts and utilizing them for managing the proceeds of crime belonging to Mahadev Online Book is the proceeds of crime as defined under Section 2(1)(u) of the PMLA, 2002. The material collected during the investigation and the statements recorded under Section 50 of the PMLA, 2002 clearly establish the link of the present applicant with the alleged offence. From the material produced in the present case, it is not acceptable that the present applicant did not know about the transactions that the amount utilized by him in purchasing the assets comes from Mahadev Online Book. Denial by the accused itself is not sufficient to consider prima facie that there is no mens rea of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... five accused persons, namely, Alok Singh Rajput, Rampravesh Sahu, Kharag @ Raja Singh, Abhishek and Pintu, under Section 4A of the Public Gambling (C.G. Amendment) Act, 1976 and Section 420, 120B of the IPC and also for Section 66D of Information Technology Act, 2000. The Enforcement Directorate had registered the Enforcement Case Information Report (hereinafter referred as 'ECIR') No. RPZ0/10/2022. On the secret information gathered by the officers of the ED, the raid was conducted on the premises of the accused persons in which it was found that a set with a laptop and they were collecting money by creating online IDs and through the said IDs they were placing bets for others through Mahadev Book, on Online cricket matches, horse racing, greyhound racing, kabaddi etc. Upon interrogation, the accused persons disclosed the names of two persons namely Abhishek and Pintu who taught them to procedure of creating the IDs and placing bets in various sports through the Mahadev Book. Initially, treating the FIR No.112/2022 of P.S. Mohan Nagar, Durg and final report dated 29-07-2022 as scheduled/predicate offence, the respondent ED registered the ECIR No. RPZO/09/2022 which was renumbered ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... applicant was also informed about the grounds of arrest. On 12-01-2024 the applicant was produced before the learned Special Court PMLA at 04:15 p.m. and his remand was obtained up to 17-01-2024. On 17-01-2024 the applicant was again sent in remand for five days of custody of the ED. On 22-01-2024 when the ED again prayed for the remand of the applicant, the applicant objected to granting remand and prayed for the release of the applicant from custody and the second application was for direction to the ED to produce the videography of the statement of the applicant recorded on 11-01-2024 and 12-01-2024 and also the videography of office premises of the ED on the said dates. On 22-01-2024 the applicant was sent in judicial custody and the application for direction to produce the videography of ED premises was dismissed with the observation that on 12-01-2024 a direction to ED had already been given to preserve videography of the recording of the statement of the applicant. On 11-03-2024 the respondent ED filed the second supplementary complaint before the learned Special Court of PMLA, Raipur in which the present applicant is arrayed as accused No. 2. In the said second prosecution ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e of the illegal operations of Mahadev Online Book. The applicant has thus, knowingly and willingly associated himself with the betting proceeds generated out of Mahadev Online Book and was involved in concealing the proceeds of crime as untainted. The applicant's involvement in concealment, layering and use of proceeds of crime comes under the definition of money laundering as defined under Section 3 of the PLMA, 2002 punishable under Section 4 of the PMLA, 2002. 3. Learned Senior Counsel for the applicant would submit that the investigating agency has acted most arbitrarily and it had nothing but ill-motivated and malafide intention to implicate the applicant in offence. The applicant is not an accused in scheduled/predicate offence. He is having no connection or association in any way with the affairs of the business of Mahadev Online Book. The applicant bonafidely appeared before the ED and cooperated with the investigation as and when he was called by the ED. His name has been mentioned in the second supplementary complaint and the investigation has already been completed against the present applicant. There is no sufficient evidence for reason to believe that the applicant i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ial Court. Therefore, the applicant may be enlarged on bail. Learned Senior Counsel for the applicant would rely upon the judgments passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the matter of V. Senthil Balaji Vs. The State represented by Deputy Directors & Ors., Criminal Appeal No.2284-2285 of 2023, Vijay Madan Lal Choudhary Vs. Union of India, (2022) SCC Online SC 929, Pankaj Bansal Vs. Union of India and others, Criminal appeal No.3051-3052 of 2023, Arnesh Kumar Vs. State of Bihar, (2014) 8 SCC 273 and also Arnab Manoranjan Goswami Vs. State of Maharashtra, (2021) 2 SCC 427. 4. Per contra, learned counsel for the ED, apart from the reply in writing submitted to the application by them, has opposed the argument made by learned counsel for the applicant and has submitted that an ECIR bearing No. RPZ0/10/2022 is recorded against the Mahadev Online Book to investigate the matter under the PMLA, 2002 on the basis of the charge sheet No.157/2022 dated 29-072022 filed by Mohan Nagar Police Station, Durg against Alok Singh Rajput, Rampravesh Sahu, Kharag @ Raja Singh and others for the offence under Section 120B and 420 of the IPC alleging in that the accused persons are involved in Online b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e panel owners and the said panel owners can create user profiles of players/punters. The panel operators are allotted fixed credits which can be transferred to any player/punter and credits are allocated to the players against payments in designated bank accounts. The players/punters who want to play online betting through Mahadev Book via WhatsApp number given on the website of Mahadev Book then head office refers these players/punters to the panel. After receiving the details of the panel the players/punters deposit a minimum amount of Rs.100/- with no maximum amount for online betting. The panel owners receive the funds from customers into benami bank accounts which are arranged by the panel owners. These bank accounts are either opened fraudulently or loaned for commission. Thousands of employees are working in the call centre in Dubai which operates multiple WhatsApp groups for each panel. Weekly accounts sheets are shared with the panel owners by head office which contain statements of all bets, total profit and loss. The panel owners are supposed to remit the shares of the Mahadev head office via hawala routes regularly. During the investigation, the bank account statement ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e bank account. They are not known personally to present applicant Amit Agrawal, yet they claim that they lent the loan to the applicant on such low interest. Some payments to the accounts that had provided bank entries were made in the month of September 2023, i.e., after search operations of the ED which is a clear-cut attempt to project the transactions are genuine ones. The statement of one Aman Agrawal, who is the cousin of present applicant Amit Agrawal was recorded on 19-02-2024 under Section 50 of the PMLA, 2002 in which he also stated that the present applicant Amit Agrawal and his brother Anil Agrawal @ Atul Agrawal are involved in Mahadev Online Book betting. The investigation further reveals that Anil Kumar Agrawal @ Atul Agrawal, who is the brother of the present applicant, is one of the partners in Mahadev Online Book and he has also been arrayed as an accused in the prosecution complaint filed by the ED. The present applicant was fully aware of the nature and source of cash. In his statement recorded on 11-01-2024, the present applicant has claimed that one Sheikh Arshad (Mob. No.7000397983) was his driver for 10 to 15 days in 2022-23. Further, he was in touch with ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... al collected during the investigation and the said view will not be taken into consideration by the Trial Court in recording its finding of the guilt or acquittal during trial which is based on the evidence adduced during the trial. As explained by this Court in Nimmagadda Prasad [(2013) 7 SCC 466], the words used in Section 45 of the 2002 Act are "reasonable grounds for believing" which means the Court has to see only if there is a genuine case against the accused and the prosecution is not required to prove the charge beyond reasonable doubt." 7. In the case of Satish Jaggi Vs. State of Chhattisgarh, (2007) 11 SCC 195, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has held that "at the stage of granting of bail, the Court can only go into the question of prima facie case established for granting bail, it cannot go into the question of credibility and reliability of witnesses put up by the prosecution. The question of credibility and reliability of prosecution witnesses can only be tested during trial." 8. The Delhi High Court in its order dated 07-03-2024 passed in Bail Application No.3807/2022 (Sanjay Jain Vs. Enforcement Directorate) after relying upon the observations made in the case of Vijay ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... financially well to do and their accounts were utilized by him for arranging bank payments against cash. Even family members were unaware of the present applicant Amit Agrawal, yet they claim that they lent money to him. From the statement of Aman Agrawal, who is the cousin brother of the present applicant Amit Agrawal it also comes during the investigation that the present applicant is involved in Mahadev Online Book betting. The present applicant claimed that Sheikh Arshad was his partner for 10 to 15 days in 2022-23. However, the CDR of his mobile number, clearly reflects that more than 170 calls have been made between them. From the statement of Chaturbhuj Sharma, it also comes that the person who is using the mobile number 7000397983 was his associate and was engaged in cash transactions involving the present applicant Amit Agrawal said Sheik Arshad was in touch with phone number 9131977273 which is issued in the name of Sourabh Chandrakar. The association of Sheikh Arshad was also established with Mahadev Online Book from the statement of Yusuf Ahmed who is one of the panel operators and from his statement it also reflects that the person who is using mobile number 7000397983 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in (2013) 7 SCC 439 has held in para 34 and 35 of its judgment that "34. Economic offences constitute a class apart and need to be visited with a different approach in the matter of bail. The economic offences having deep-rooted conspiracies and involving huge loss of public funds need to be viewed seriously and considered as grave offences affecting the economy of the country as a whole and thereby posing serious threat to the financial health of the country. 35. While granting bail, the court has to keep in mind the nature of accusations, the nature of evidence in support thereof, the severity of the punishment which conviction will entail, the character of the accused, circumstances which are peculiar to the accused, reasonable possibility of securing the presence of the accused at the trial, reasonable apprehension of the witnesses being tampered with, the larger interests of the public/State and other similar considerations. 12. Hon'ble Supreme Court in the matter of Vijay Madanlal Chaudhary (supra) has observed in para 398 as under :- "398. Thus, it is well settled by the various decisions of this Court and policy of the State as also the view of international communi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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