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2023 (11) TMI 616 - CHHATTISGARH HIGH COURTSeeking grant of bail - Money Laundering - predicate offence - taking bribes, illegal commissions and unaccounted monies etc. in the State of Chhattisgarh - discharge of burden to prove - admissibility of statement under Section 50 of the PMLA - twin conditions under Section 45 of the PMLA, satisfied or not - HELD THAT:- On going through the statements recorded in various cases of Arunpati Tripathi and Vidhu Gupta wherein role of Arunpati Tripathi has been stated and specially in the statement of Vidhu Gupta the role of Arunpathi Tripathi has been elaborated. Likewise in the case of Nitesh Purohit, apart from the statement of Nitesh Purohit under Section 50 of the PMLA, Arvind Singh had stated the modus operandi which shows that for commission of Part A, B & C, the money of the commission was distributed by nine shareholders, which shows that all the persons are influential one, few of them are part of system. In case of Trilok Singh Dhillon statement of Sanjhiv Fatehpuria & Kamlesh Kumar Kesharwani was seen wherein the specific role played by Trilok Singh Dhillon has been explained - In respect of Anwar Dhebar all the witnesses have named him in their respective statements and attributed the role played. Section 45 of the PMLA envisages that when the Public Prosecutor opposes the application and the Court is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the applicant is not guilty of such offence; and that he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail, the bail can be granted - after going through the statements of witnesses, filed with reply, the ways and means have been disclosed which inculpate the applicant, at this stage, the first part of condition of Section 45 that applicants are not guilty of offence of money laundering cannot be presumed. In the case in hand, the complaint has already been registered in pursuance of registration of scheduled offence, proceeds of crime has also been recovered and after enquiry the complaint has been filed and it is pending before the competent Court. Apart from it is not a case of defence that scheduled offence has not been registered with the jurisdictional police. Applicants have not been finally absolved of their offences by a Court of competent jurisdiction by an order of discharge, acquittal or quashing of a criminal case of a scheduled offence, therefore, the attempt to take a guard would be a misinterpretation. There is a legal presumption envisaged under Section 23 of the PMLA, which speaks that where money laundering involves two or more inter-connected transactions and one or more such transactions is or are proved to be involved in money laundering, then for the purposes of adjudication or confiscation under Section 8 or for the trial of the money laundering offence, it shall unless otherwise proved to the satisfaction of the Adjudicating Authority, be presumed that the remaining transactions form part of such inter-connected transactions - there is a reverse burden of proof under Section 24 of the PMLA that in the case of a person charged with the offence of money-laundering under section 3, the Authority or Court shall, unless the contrary is proved, presume that such proceeds of crime are involved in money-laundering. Thus, on the basis of conclusion laid down by the Supreme Court in the matter of Vijay Madanlal Choudhary [2022 (7) TMI 1316 - SUPREME COURT], it is evident that action taken under the PMLA falls under the definition of ‘enquiry’. The enquiry is like a judicial proceeding (Section 50 of the PMLA) and further since the authorities are not police officers, the statement of person including accused recorded during the enquiry can be seen at the stage of grant of bail and presumption can also be made by the Court if the statement so recorded contains facts constituting the offence of money laundering as envisaged under Section 3 of the PMLA. The present is not a fit case to grant bail to the applicants - all the bail applications are liable to be and are hereby rejected.
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