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Synopsis

The Delhi High Court on Friday posted Trinamool Congress (TMC) Leader Anubrata Mondal's plea challenging the trial court’s order of January 24, denying him default bail in the case registered by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) related to cattle smuggling in West Bengal for hearing on July 4.

The vacation bench of Justice Chandra Dhari Singh said, "I'll list it for hearing at the reopening on July 4".

During the hearing, Advocate Mudit Jain appearing for Mondal contended, "I filed the default bail plea on January 30th, and on April 24 an early hearing application was filed, it was then listed on June 1, thereafter June 9 date was given. ASG Raju in the early application had agreed to list the plea as per convenience of the court. The early hearing plea was filed as the matter was listed for hearing on July 27....this is a default bail application pending since January 30".

Notably, on April 24, the senior counsel appearing for Mondal filed an early hearing application. He had contended, "My Lord! the pleadings are complete, and we have received the response from the Directorate of Enforcement. It is a Section 167 application. Even the Supreme Court says that within 15 days it should be disposed of. Four months date is given in the case My Lord!"

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju appearing for ED had submitted, "Any date convenient to My Lords! may be given".

On January 24, Special Judge Raghubir Singh of the Rouse Avenue Court, Delhi dismissed the TMC leader’s bail plea.

The Special Judge was hearing an application filed by Anubrata Mondal under Section 167(2) of the CrPC, wherein he sought statutory bail in a case registered under Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) Act. The plea stated that Mondal was arrested by ED on November 17, 2022, and had been in detention since then despite the lapse of the 60-day period since the filling of the present plea, and no prosecution complaint had been filed till date. On finding "no merits" in the case, the court had dismissed his bail plea. While dismissing, the court had referred to the Apex Court judgment in CBI v. Anupam J. Kulkarni wherein it was observed that a period of 90 days or 60 days has to be computed from the date of detention as per the orders of the Magistrate. The court had held that it is not to be computed "from the date of arrest (formal arrest in the present context) by the police”.

The court had held that in the present case merely by a formal arrest, the accused could not be construed as having come into the physical custody of the ED in order to pursue and conclude the investigation within the stipulated period of 60 days reckoned from the date of formal arrest. The court had added that the ED made the formal arrest on November 17, 2022, and immediately filed an application seeking production warrants for the accused. Furthermore, the court had noted that for the entire delay, if any had been caused by the accused himself as he was the one who challenged the production warrant orders issued by the court which was pending before the Delhi High Court, "he (Anubrata Mondal) could not be allowed to take benefit of his own (mis)deeds”.

It is to be noted that the TMC leader had approached the Delhi High Court in December challenging the production warrant issued by Rouse Avenue Court, Delhi in the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) case, in connection with the multi-crore cattle smuggling case in West Bengal.

On December 19, last year Special Judge Raghubir Singh issued a production warrant for the TMC Leader and ordered, "The Jail Superintendent Asansol Correctional Home, Asansol, Pashmimi Bardhman, West Bengal is hereby directed to produce this accused namely Anubrata Mondal before the Court of undersigned”.

Background:

Notably, on August 11, 2022, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Anubrata Mondal, a close aide to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in connection with the cattle smuggling case. On August 5, the CBI served a summons on Mondal for questioning in connection with the cattle smuggling case. On August 8, Mondal was summoned to the CBI office at Nizam's Palace in Kolkata.

In April, the trial court took cognizance of a chargesheet filed by the ED against other accused namely former Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Vinay Mishra, his brother Vikas Mishra and Md. Enamul Haque, the alleged kingpin of cattle smuggling ruckus across the India-Bangladesh border.

Special Judge CBI Sanjay Garg, while taking cognizance noted that ED had filed chargesheet under Sections 44 and 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 for the offences under Sections 3 and 70 of PMLA, punishable under Section 4 of PMLA.

Case Title: Anubrata Mondal v. Directorate of Enforcement [CRL.M.A. 10964/2023 in BAIL APPLN. 299/2023] 

Statue: The Code of Criminal Procedure: The Prevention of Money Laundering Act