The Delhi High Court on Friday held that taking part in protests is not a ground to deny bail in a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani made the observation while granting bail to Popular Front of India (PFI) activist Wahidur Rahman.
One of the grounds raised by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) to oppose Rahman’s bail was that he participated in protests organised by PFI against the ban imposed on that organisation and that he was involved in an incident of throwing a petrol bomb.
The Court observed that even if these allegations are taken at their face value, they pertain to a period prior to PFI being declared an “unlawful association”.
“Participation in protest activities in that temporal context, however unseemly the form of protest may be alleged to have been, cannot at this stage, be treated as a determinative factor for denying bail in a PMLA prosecution, particularly when the primary focus of the allegation is on the financial transactions alleged to have been undertaken by the petitioner,” the Court added.
Rahman was arrested on March 20, 2025 and was accused of helping route funds to the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) which, as per ED, operated as a front organisation for PFI.
According to the ED, he acted as a physical education trainer for PFI and facilitated the layering of funds by depositing money into bank accounts before transferring it to SDPI accounts as purported donations. Investigators alleged that SDPI accounts received over ₹32.94 crore between 2010 and 2025, including large cash deposits meant to conceal the source of funds.
However, the Court observed that the allegations against Rahman involved only a minuscule amount of ₹ 3.15 lakh and that the said the amount was far below the ₹1 crore threshold under the proviso to Section 45 of the PMLA, which governs the stringent conditions for bail.
The court also observed that Rahman was named as an accused only in the seventh supplementary prosecution complaint filed in May 2025 despite the investigation having begun in 2022.
Advocates Adit S Pujari, A Nowfal, Shaikh Saipan Dastgir, Manvendra Singh Sekhawat, Prerna Mukherjee, Mohd Arif and Mansoor Ali appeared for Wahidur Rahman.
ED was represented by Special Counsel Zoheb Hossain, Panel Counel Vivek Gurnani as well as advocates Pranjal Tripathi and Chinmay Anand Panigrahi.
[Read Judgment]