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Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted bail to Sukanya Mondal after 16 months after her arrest in a money laundering case linked to India-Bangladesh Border Cattle smuggling. She is daughter of Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal.
Sukanya was arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on April 26, 2023. Since then, she was in custody. The only allegations against the Sukanya Mondal are that she, with the help of her father, Anubrata Mondal, who received bribes on behalf of the main accused, Satish Kumar, from this alleged "cattle smuggling" business, has laundered the money to the tune of Rs. 12 crores approximately, through her various companies and firms. Justice Neena Bansal Krishna granted her bail in the matter. Her bail plea was pending before the High court since last year. While granting bail to Sukanya Mondal, Justice Neena Bansal Krishna said, "As has been observed in the context of this case itself, while deciding bail of Anubrata Mondal, the documents involved are voluminous, and the trial may take a long time to get concluded. " Furthermore, the applicant is a woman who is entitled to bail under Proviso to Section 45 of PMLA, 2002," the high court held. "Considering the totality of the circumstances as narrated above, the Applicant is admitted to regular bail upon her furnishing a personal bond in the sum of Rs. 10 Lakh and one surety of the like amount to the satisfaction of the learned Trial Court, subject to the following conditions," Justice Krishna ordered on Tuesday. The bench noted that In the present case, the facts essentially state that the Applicant is the daughter of Anubrata Mondal and the allegations essentially against her are that she had used her Company/Firm accounts to launder the money, proceeds of crime, which was received by her father," As has been observed in the case of Saumya Chaurasia, the applicant may be an educated woman having her business and commercial enterprise, but it cannot be overlooked that the allegations against her own are essentially in the context of her father and that she in her commercial ventures, has laundered the money received by her father as a bribe," Justice Krishna said. "Pertinently, Sh. Anubrata Mondal, the father of the Applicant, has been admitted to bail by the Apex Court on 30.07.2024, essentially on the grounds of his incarceration in jail from 11.08.2022 and that the case was still at the stage of Section 207 of Cr.P.C., 1973. Looking at the number of pages in the charge sheet, which were voluminous, and some were in Bengali which were required to be translated, Sh. Anubrata Mondal was admitted to bail," justice Krishna said. Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa for the Applicant has argued that knowledge is an essential ingredient for an offence under section 3 of PMLA, as held in the case of Vijay Madanlal Choudhary vs. Union of India. He also argued that the Pick and Choose policy of ED adopted in arresting the accused persons, depicts the discriminatory practice of ED qua the Applicant. In the case of Arvind Kejriwal vs Directorate of Enforcement, the Apex Court observed that the doctrine of need and necessity to arrest possibly accepts the principle of parity enshrined under Article 14, and held that the ED "should act uniformly, consistent in conduct, confirming one rule for all," senior counsel submitted. Her regular bail plea was dismissed by the trial court on June 1, 2023. Thereafter, she has approached the High Court for seeking bail. The apex court had passed a direction to decide the bail application within three weeks after the reopening of the High Court. Senior advocate Pahwa had submitted that she was arrested in April 2023. Since then, she is in custody. The Enforcement Directorate has already filed a prosecution complaint (charge sheet) against her. Before the trial court, it was argued that she should be granted bail in the parity with another accused, Tanya Sanyal, who was not arrested, and a charge sheet was filed without arrest. He had also submitted that Tanya is the wife of BSF commandant Satish Kumar, who is also one of the accused. Allegations against Tanya are that she received bribe money for cattle smuggling from Enamul Haque and laundered the same. Despite being accused in both CBI and ED cases, Tanya was granted regular bail. Her bail was not opposed by the ED, the counsel had argued. It was also argued that the applicant, Sukanya, also compromised her health due to the investigation of the case. Her surgery was due and she was to travel to Coachin. After receiving the summons, she joined the investigation and was arrested. Her father is a TMC leader and in custody in ED case. He has been granted bail by the Supreme court in the CBI case on July 30. Anubrata Mondal, Trinamool Congress party's president of Birbhum district and said to be a close aide of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, was earlier arrested by the CBI in connection with the same case in July 2022. ED arrested him in the alleged multi-crore cattle smuggling scam after questioned him inside the Asansol jail where he was lodged. While opposing the bail application, the ED argued that the investigations further revealed that cash amount to the tune of Rs.12,80,98,237 cash which was nothing but part of proceeds of crime was deposited in 18 bank accounts related to the Anubrata Mondal, Sukanya Mondal and their family members and Firms. The Applicant and her father failed to explain the genuine source of such cash deposits. The ED said that the cash amount of Rs. 1,35,87,409 was deposited in 7 bank accounts of Sukanya Mondal herself, besides various amounts deposited in the business entities of the Applicant. It was also submitted that the Applicant has sought to portray herself as primary school teacher, though the investigations have revealed that she was actively involved in the finances of family business, which she looked after on a day-to-day basis. (ANI)
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