TMI Blog2015 (7) TMI 1313X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Act and on consideration of the antecedents of the petitioner in collection of money from open market for issuing secured debenture in violation of the guidelines of SEBI and on further consideration of the manner of keeping accounts of the Rose Valley, unable to hold that the petitioner is not likely to commit any offence while on bail. As a result, cannot persuade myself to grant bail to the petitioner at this stage. So, prayer for bail is rejected. The application is dismissed. - CRM 6285 of 2015 - - - Dated:- 21-7-2015 - R.K. Bag, J. For the Appellant : Sekhar Basu, Milon Mukherjee, Sr. Advocates, Arup Nath Bhattacharyya, Sandipan Ganguly, Saswati Chatterjee, Suvashree Patel, Sujit Singh and N. Das For the Respondents : Shamsuddin, Special Counsel for Directorate of Enforcement and Rajiv Mukherjee JUDGMENT R.K. Bag, J. 1. The petitioner has filed this application for bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in connection with ML Case No. 03 of 2015 arising out of ECIR No. KLZO/02/2014 pending before the court of Learned Chief Judge in-charge, City Sessions Court, Calcutta. 2. Mr. Basu, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... that the court should not weigh the evidence meticulously for arriving at a finding whether bail should be granted or refused to the petitioner. Mr. Basu also relied on the decision of the Supreme Court reported in (2007) 1 SCC Cri 355 in order to submit that Section 45 of the PML Act must be construed in pragmatic manner for formation of opinion about the likelihood of committing offence by the petitioner while on bail, so that the valuable right of bail must not be refused to the petitioner. 4. Mr. Mukherjee, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner has supplemented the argument advanced by Mr. Basu by submitting that the power of the High Court to grant bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is not restricted by the conditions laid down under Section 45 of the PML Act. He further submits that the petition of complaint is already filed before the Special Court and as such the opposite party cannot take the plea that the investigation is still going on as there is no scope for filing supplementary petition of complaint under the provisions of the PML Act. 5. Dr. Shamsuddin, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the opposite party submit ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... which may not have any bearing on the merit of the case and the trial court would, thus, be free to decide the case on the basis of evidence adduced at the trial, without in any manner being prejudiced thereby. In State of Uttaranchal V. Rajesh Kumar Gupta reported in (2007) 1 SCC Cri 355 the Supreme Court has observed in paragraph 28 what should be the approach of the court dealing with bail under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, which is as follows:- 28. Section 37 of the 1985 Act must be construed in a pragmatic manner. It cannot be construed in such a way so as to negate the right of party to obtain bail which is otherwise a valuable right for all practical purposes . It is also held in paragraph 30 of the said report that for deciding the future conduct of the accused for the purpose of granting bail, the court must consider the antecedents of the accused, his propensities and the nature and manner in which he is alleged to have committed the offence. I fully agree with the above proposition of law laid down by the Supreme Court for the purpose of construing the restrictions imposed under Section 45 of the PML Act for consideration of bail of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... fence punishable under Section 4 of the P.M.L. Act in particular. 8. Before dealing with the application for bail on merit, I would like to decide whether the provisions of Section 45 of the P.M.L. Act are binding on this court while this court is considering the application for bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. There is no doubt that P.M.L. Act deals with the offence of money laundering and the Parliament has enacted this law as per commitment of the country to the United Nations General Assembly. Naturally, the P.M.L. Act is a special statute enacted by the Parliament for dealing with money laundering. Section 5 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 clearly lays down that the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure will not affect any special statute or any local law. In other words, the provisions of any special statute will prevail over the general provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure in case of any conflict. On perusal of Section 45 of the P.M.L. Act, I find that the Section starts with a non obstante clause which indicates that the provisions laid down in Section 45 of the P.M.L. Act will have overriding effect on the general provisio ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... holders of Rose Valley, statements of AGM of Accounts of Rose Valley and statements of some Regional Managers of Rose Valley for formation of opinion whether the petitioner is involved in the offence of money laundering as alleged by the opposite party. On consideration of the above statements and other materials collected during investigation I cannot persuade myself to hold that no offence of money laundering is made out against the petitioner. The question whether the opposite party is entitled to file supplementary petition of complaint to prosecute the petitioner under Section 4 of the P.M.L. Act remains open for decision by the trial court. 10. By making a pragmatic approach to the provision of Section 45(1) of the P.M.L. Act and on consideration of the antecedents of the petitioner in collection of money from open market for issuing secured debenture in violation of the guidelines of SEBI and on further consideration of the manner of keeping accounts of the Rose Valley, I am unable to hold that the petitioner is not likely to commit any offence while on bail. As a result, I cannot persuade myself to grant bail to the petitioner at this stage. So, prayer for bail is rejec ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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