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2022 (11) TMI 401 - HC - Money LaunderingSeeking grant of regular bail - siphoning off of funds - twin conditions for grant of bail satisfied or not - Section 4 read with Section 70 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 - HELD THAT:- Section 45(1) of PMLA 2002 imposes twin conditions before bail could be granted to a person accused of having committed an offence punishable under the PMLA. As per section 45(1) PMLA, the Public Prosecutor was required to be given an opportunity to oppose the plea for bail and that where the Public Prosecutor opposed such plea, the Court could grant bail only after recording satisfaction that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be released was not guilty of the offence he was accused of and that while on bail he was not likely to commit any offence. The constitutional validity of provisions of section 45 PMLA 2002, imposing the twin conditions for grant of bail, which were also there before amendment of section 45 PMLA in 2018, was questioned before Hon'ble the Supreme Court in Nikesh Tarachand Shah vs. Union of India [2017 (11) TMI 1336 - SUPREME COURT] and the Supreme Court, after holding that the prescribed twin conditions for release on bail were violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, declared Section 45(1) of the PMLA, to that extent, to be unconstitutional - Thus it is apparent that despite the Supreme Court having declared that the twin conditions for release on bail as prescribed by un-amended provisions of Section 45(1) of the PMLA,were violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India and thus unconstitutional. Obesity, as in the case of the petitioner, who weighs 153 kilograms is not just a symptom but is itself a disease which becomes root-cause of several other diseases. With such co-morbodities, the response, the resistance, the resilience and the capacity of the body to fight ailments and recuperate efficaciously, decreases substantially. The jail doctor or for that matter, a civil hospital may not be fully equiped to handle a patient having multiple aiments who apart from medical treatmet may require a certain level of monitoring, care and attention which ordinarily is not available in jail - Considering the co-morbodities of the petitioner, it can safely be said that he falls in the exception of being “sick” as carved out in Section 45 of the Act, so as to be entitled to be released on bail. The petitioner is ordered to be released on regular bail on his furnishing bail bonds/surety bonds to the satisfaction of learned trial Court/Chief Judicial Magistrate/Duty Magistrate concerned - petition allowed.
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