Money laundering case: Supreme Court grants anticipatory bail to brothers of Chhattisgarh IAS officer

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted anticipatory bail to Pawan and Ashok Kumar Agrawal, brothers of Chhattisgarh-cadre IAS officer Babulal Agrawal, in connection with a money-laundering case. [Pawan Kumar Agrawal and anr vs Enforcement Directorate through IO].A bench of Justices MR Shah and Sudhanshu Dhulia allowed an appeal against a Chhattisgarh High Court order that had rejected the bail applications of the two, who are directors of Prime Ispat Limited. .As per a report in The Hindu, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had begun its probe in the matter on the basis of a complaint registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Chhattisgarh. .The complaint alleged that the brothers had acquired assets disproportionate to their known sources of income, inviting raids by the Income Tax Department in February 2010.Three more complaints were registered and chargesheets filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation subsequently.According to the ED, the brothers had conspired to open over 400 bank accounts in the name of villagers in Kharora to deposit large sums of cash that were routed through shell companies. .The High Court had, in February 2022, rejected their pre-arrest bail applications after noting that a delay in courts taking cognisance was not a ground for relief in cases of economic offences. Pertinently, the single-judge had held that the stringent twin-conditions for bail in Prevention of Money-Laundering Act (PMLA) cases stood revived in the light of a subsequent legislative amendment. In the appeal before the Supreme Court, the accused argued that while the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) was registered in 2017 and a Prosecution Complaint filed in 2018, the two brothers of the IAS officer were never arrested during the investigation and have cooperated throughout. Further, the appellants have not been been summoned even once, indicating that no custodial interrogation is required, the Supreme Court was told. .Advocates Abhimanyu Bhandari, Kartika Sharma, Somesh Tiwari, Chirag Madan, Vidula Mehrotra and Utsav Saxena, instructed by Vardhaman Chambers, apperaed for the appellants. The ED was represented by Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain.