Supreme Court grants bail to Sadanand Kadam in Dapoli resort money laundering case

The Supreme Court on Monday granted bail to Sadanand Kadam, an aide of Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Anil Parab in the Dapoli resort money laundering case. [Sadanand Gangaram Kadam v Directorate of Enforcement and Anr].A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan noted Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Suryaprakash V Raju's fair stand of leaving it to the Court to decide the prayer for bail..Even otherwise, the Court found that Kadam was entitled to bail in accordance with Section 45(1)(ii) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on appropriate terms and conditions, till the disposal of the complaint case filed by the Enforcement Directorate.In view of the ASG's stand, the Court did not record reasons in its order and directed that Kadam be produced before the Special Court within a week for being released on bail on appropriate terms and conditions..In March 2022, the income tax (IT) department had raided premises in several districts of Maharashtra linked to a regional transport officer who was allegedly close to Parab.During such raids, the investigators claimed that they discovered irregularities relating to the purchase of a land in Dapoli in 2017. The plot of land which was owned by Parab was purchased by Sadanand Kadam in May 2017 who then built a resort on the property..The department alleged that ₹6 crores was spent on developing on the resort and it was sold in 2020 for just for ₹11 crores. The cost of building the resort had not been accounted for by both Kadam and Parab, it had said.Subsequently, ED registered an ECIR for money laundering following which it raided seven premises linked to Parab and his alleged close aides..The ED alleged that Parab purchased the land for consideration of ₹1.80 crore out of which an amount of ₹80 lakh was paid in cash and the cash was handed over to the seller by Kadam on behalf of Parab.The agency also contended that the value of the land is around ₹2.74 crore and the resort on the land was valued at ₹7.46 crore, generated through criminal activities. Consequently, Kadam was arrested on March 10, 2023..Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Devadatt Kamat with advocates Rohit Sharma, Nikhil Purohit, Jatin Lalwani, Shardul Singh, Prerna Gandhi, Anish Sahapurkar, Aparajita Jamwal, Revanta Solanki, and Kumar Dushyant Singh represented Kadam..[Read Order]