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2015 (12) TMI 1601

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..... juries to the interest of the prosecution; [c] surrender passport, if any, to the lower court within a week; [d] not leave State of Gujarat and Union territory of Delhi without prior permission of the Sessions Judge concerned; [e] mark presence with the respondent No.2 every Monday for a period of three months and thereafter on any day of the first week of each English Calendar month for a period of one year; [f] furnish the present address of residence to the I.O. and also to the Court at the time of execution of the bond and shall not change the residence without prior permission of this Court; The Authorities will release the applicant only if he is not required in connection with any other offence for the time being. If breach of any of the above conditions is committed, the Sessions Judge concerned will be free to issue warrant or take appropriate action in the matter. Bail bond to be executed before the lower court having jurisdiction to try the case. It will be open for the concerned Court to delete, modify and/or relax any of the above conditions in accordance with law. At the trial, the trial court shall not be influenced by the observations of preliminary n .....

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..... ainst four accused, namely, Girish @ Tomi Purshottam Patel, Kiran Jayantilal Mala, Chirag Parikh and Dharmendrasinh Vishwanath Chauhan @ Dharmin Chauhan for the offences punishable under Sections 418, 419, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of Indian Penal Code alleging that the Enforcement department had raided a farm house on 19.3.2015 wherein it was found that 16 persons were indulging in Hawala racket and of cricket betting. An FIR was also lodged against 16 persons for the offences punishable under Sections 4 and 5 of the Public Gambling Act, 1867 read with Sections 65, 66 and 66C of the I.T. Act. The said FIR was registered as C.R. No.222 of 2015 with Kishanvadi Police Station. The said four persons who are referred herein above were amongst the 16 accused against whom the said FIR was filed. 3.2 During further investigation of the said offence, it was found that the aforesaid four accused persons had entered into a partnership firm by oral understanding, namely, M/s. Maruti Ahmedabad, Partnership Firm to carry on illegal activities like cricket betting, Hawala etc. It was found that against those persons, other offences were registered for betting at Unjha of District Mehs .....

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..... of crime including its concealment, possession, acquisition or use and also projecting or claiming it as untainted property. 4.1 He would submit that the word proceeds of crime is defined under Section 2 (u) of the PMLA. As per the said definition, an amount alleged to have been derived by the applicant through cricket betting would not fall under the proceeds of crime since betting is not a scheduled offence. He would submit that betting of cricket is not a scheduled offence since the scheduled offence is defined under Section 2 (y) of the PMLA. He would submit that the only allegation made in the complaint against the present applicant who is accused No.7 in the complaint is that he had provided Master Login Ids of betting website BETFAIR.COM which was obtained without providing any documents as mandated under the Know Your Client (KYC) norms. The residential premises of the applicant at Delhi was searched on 22.5.2015 itself under the provisions of PMLA Act, 2002 which was resulted in recovery and seizure of incriminating records maintained both manually as well as electronically, and a currency of ₹ 10 Lacs were found from the said premises. He would, however, sub .....

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..... ated 20.10.2015 passed in Criminal Misc. Application No.16555 of 2015 and order dated 20.10.2015 passed in Criminal Misc. Application No.14446 of 2015 and submitted that the said orders have become final and no appeals have been preferred before the Hon'ble Supreme Court. 5. On the other hand, learned Standing Counsel Ms. Trusha Patel appearing for the respondent No.2 original complainant has vehemently submitted that huge scam of Hawala to the tune of about ₹ 2500 Crores has come in light in the game of Cricket betting. The investigation till date carried out and record recovered and seized from the Farm house at Vadodara on 19.3.2015 reveals that those four accused had received and placed various bets from large number of bookies and punters amounting to ₹ 2500 Crores on different Cricket matches played between 4.12.2014 till 19.3.2015 i.e. the date on which the farm house was raided and searched under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 for the ongoing ICC World Cup Quarterfinal match between India and Bangladesh. She would submit that the investigation revealed that the applicant along with other accused were actively participating in the illegal acti .....

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..... LA Act are reproduced herein below :- 7. Sections 3 and 4 of the PMLA Act read as under :- 3. Offence of money-laundering - Whosoever directly or indirectly attempts to indulge or knowingly assists or knowingly is a party or is actually involved in any process or activity connected with the proceeds of crime and projecting it as untainted property shall be guilty of offence of money-laundering. 4. Punishment for money-laundering - Whoever commits the offence of money-laundering shall be punishable with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three years but which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine which may extend to five lakh rupees: Provided that where the proceeds of crime involved in money-laundering relates to any offence specified under paragraph 2 of Part A of the Schedule, the provisions of this section shall have effect as if for the words which may extend to seven years , the words which may extend to ten years had been substituted. 8. Section 3 provides that a person shall be guilty of offence of money laundering when he is directly or indirectly attempts to indulge or knowingly assists or knowingly is a p .....

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..... ther that the Special Court shall not take cognizance of any offence punishable under section 4 except upon a complaint in writing made by - (i) the Director; or (ii) any officer of the Central Government or State Government authorised in writing in this behalf by the Central Government by a general or a special order made in this behalf by that Government. [(1A) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), or any other provision of this Act, no police officer shall investigate into an offence under this Act unless specifically authorised, by the Central Government by a general or special order, and, subject to such conditions as may be prescribed.] (2) The limitation on granting of bail specified in sub-section (1) is in addition to the limitations under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974) or any other law for the time being in force on granting of bail. 12. Section 24 of PMLA reads as under :- 24. Burden of Proof - When a person is accused of having committed the offence under section 3, the burden of proving that proceeds of crime are untainted property shall be on the accused. 13. The burden of pro .....

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..... IR No.- ECIR/03/AMZO/2015 [Now PMLA Complaint No.8 of 2015] registered at the instance of the respondent No.2, on executing a bond of ₹ 1,00,000/- (Rupees One Lac only) with two local sureties of ₹ 50,000/- each to the satisfaction of the trial Court and subject to the conditions that he shall; [a] not take undue advantage of liberty or misuse liberty; [b] not act in a manner injuries to the interest of the prosecution; [c] surrender passport, if any, to the lower court within a week; [d] not leave State of Gujarat and Union territory of Delhi without prior permission of the concerned Sessions Judge; [e] mark presence with the respondent No.2 on every Monday of each English Calendar month for a period of three months and thereafter on any day of the first week of each English Calendar month for a period of one year; [f] furnish the present address of residence to the I.O. and also to the Court at the time of execution of the bond and shall not change the residence without prior permission of this Court; 17. The Authorities will release the applicant only if he is not required in connection with any other offence for the time being. If breach of any .....

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