Delhi's Patiala House Court dismisses bail plea of PFI leaders

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Delhi's Patiala House Court on Tuesday dismissed the bail petition of Muhammad Perwez, Muhammad Illiyas and Abdul Muqeet in a money laundering case registered by Enforcement Directorate (ED) against banned outfit Popular Front of India (PFI).

Muhammad Ilias, Abdul Muqeet and Mohammad Perwez Ahmad recently moved court and sought bail on the ground that ED in the present case has adopted "delaying tactics" and has not filed the complaint within time, as such accused/applicants who are stated to be in judicial custody are entitled for bail in view of the mandate of section 167 (2) of CrPC.

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Additional Sessions Judge/NIA Judge Shailender Malik on Monday said, having considered the submissions at bar and taking note of the fact that the complaint (Chargesheet) in this case was filed in the court on November 19, 2022 which was within the period of 60 days since the arrest of the accused persons by the ED.

In such a situation no doubt due to certain lapses/misunderstandings, since ED had mentioned names of certain witnesses whom they had otherwise kept under the category of protected witnesses as per the Witness Protection Scheme, 2018 and different provisions of other statute. In such a situation merely because the copy of the complaint and documents could not be supplied to the advocates of the accused, said the court.

"Release on bail 11/s 167 (2) CrPC Right of statutory bail/default bail to my understanding arises only when investigating agency failed to file the chargesheet/complaint within the statutory period since the date of arrest of the accused which has not happened in the present case," said the court.

As noted above, the court has already taken cognizance of the offence and thereafter, passed the order dated December 16, 2022 wherein this court permitted ED to mention pseudo names of the protected witnesses the relevant places of the complaint and therefore, permitted ED to file a fresh complaint with proper pseudo names of the witnesses. This must have caused some delay in supplying the copy of the complaint and documents but that by itself cannot be a reason for the grant of bail u/s 167 (2) of CrPC.

Special Public Prosecutor Naveen Kunar Matta alongwith Advocate Muhammad Faizan Khan appeared for ED in the matter while Advocates Satyam Tripathi, Mujeeb-ur-Rehman and Shakeel Abbas appeared for the accused persons in the case.

Muhammad Perwez Ahmad is the president of PFI Delhi, Muhammad Illiyas is the general secretary and Abdul Muqeet is the office secretary of PFI Delhi.

According to the plea, the applicants are in judicial custody and are innocent as the investigation agency falsely implicated him in a fabricated case while acting against the very settled principles of law and violating the fundamental rights of the applicant.

According to the ED, the accused persons revealed that they have played an active role in bogus cash donations on behalf of PFI and in claiming and projecting PFI's unaccounted cash raised through unknown and suspicious sources as untainted and legitimate.

ED stated that the PMLA investigation has revealed that as a part of a criminal conspiracy hatched by PFI office bearers over the past many years, suspicious funds from within the country and abroad have been raised by PFI and related entities and have been clandestinely remitted to India in a concealed manner and deposited in their bank accounts over the years.

"These funds have been raised as a part of the scheduled offence of criminal conspiracy. The funds so raised or collected by PFI are thus nothing but proceeds of crime which they have layered, placed and integrated through their numerous bank accounts as well as those of their members or sympathizers. Thus PFI and its related entities have been involved in the continuous offence of money laundering over the years," ED stated.

ED earlier had alleged that Perwez Ahmad was part of a criminal conspiracy since 2018.

"He admitted to having looked after the collection of funds in Delhi. Investigation revealed that such fund collection exercise was a sham and was falsely projected to be received from PFI sympathizers whereas statements of individuals, projected as contributors, revealed that these transactions were bogus. Hence, cash from suspicious sources was nothing but proceeds of crime generated out of criminal conspiracy," ED stated.

"It is evident that Perwez Ahmad deliberately withheld disclosure of true facts and deliberately lied and tried to mislead the investigating officer during the recording of his statements under Section 50 of PMLA, 2002," added the probing agency.

ED earlier stated that the PMLA investigation against PFI in a matter registered in 2018 revealed that more than Rs 120 crores has been deposited in the accounts of PFI and related entities over the years and that a very large part of the same has been deposited in cash.

Perwez Ahmed and others were arrested from Delhi on September 22 during the largest search operation conducted by a joint team of ED and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and state police forces, arresting 106 PFI members from 15 states.

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