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2016 (3) TMI 881 - HC - Money LaunderingPrevention of Money Laundering - Special Court after forming a prima facie opinion that an offence under Section 3 punishable under Section 4 of the 2002 Act was made out, has summoned the petitioner through warrants of arrest - summoning of an accused in the case of a non-bailable offence through ordinary process - Held that:- We are satisfied that the petitioner does not deserve to any protection against his arrest or subjection to the judicial custody for more than one reasons. Firstly, all the grounds now taken by him were very much available in the petition for the grant of pre-arrest bail which was dismissed by this Court on 10.9.2015. Secondly, there is no change in the circumstances thereafter which could possibly justify the petitioner's second attempt to evade judicial custody. The summoning of an accused in the case of a non-bailable offence through ordinary process and/or coercive means is discretion of the Court though to be exercised judiciously and by striking balance between the right to liberty vis-a-vis the legislative intendment in declaring the gravity of an offence. The only caveat is that the mode of securing presence cannot be resorted to mechanically. There ought to be due application of mind so that the reasons for invoking coercive means of securing presence are well elicited. The petitioner (Bally Singh Kandola) is statedly a U.S. Citizen. One kilogram heroin is alleged to have been recovered from him and his mother. He has different bank accounts in US and UK. He has been studying abroad though he is said to have admitted in his statement before the Directorate that his parents "did not file their income tax returns". Having regard to the gravity attached by the Legislature to the nature of offences defined under the 2002 Act especially the mandatory nature of Section 45 of the 2002 Act, it cannot be said that the summoning of the petitioner through warrants of arrest is a mechanical exercise or lacks the desired application of mind. The principles laid down by the Supreme Court in Inder Mohan Goswami's case are in the context of a private criminal complaint which originated out of a property dispute and the genesis of which lied in an agreement to sell between the accused and the complainant. These principles are distinguishable in a statutory complaint filed under the 2002 Act. The petitioner or his mother have failed to make out a case that the Designated Court ought to have summoned them through ordinary process. No case to interfere with the impugned order dated 21.7.2015 is made out.
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