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Court said that allegations against the accused Manish Kothari will be tested during the trial and his stand that he acted on the basis of information and records provided to him by his client could not be rejected outrightly
The Delhi High Court recently granted bail to Manish Kothari, the chartered accountant of TMC leader Anubrata Mondal, in a money laundering case related to the alleged cattle smuggling racket across the India-Bangladesh border.
The bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma observed that allegations against the accused will be tested during the trial and his stand that he acted on the basis of information and record provided to him by his client could not be rejected outright.
"In the facts and circumstances, the petitioner is admitted to bail on furnishing personal bond in the sum of Rs 5 lakhs with a surety of the like amount to the satisfaction of the trial court", the court said in its order dated September 22.
The single-judge bench noted that while the Enforcement Directorate (ED) claimed that the petitioner accused, currently in judicial custody, was “instrumental in projecting tainted money as untainted money”, his defence was that Mondal was shifting the blame on the petitioner only to save himself. This has to be tested during the course of the trial, the high court said.
“Generally speaking, the professional would act on the instructions of his client. However, whether he has gone beyond his professional duty is something which is required to be seen and examined during the trial”, it opined.
The judge said that the allegation against the present petitioner (Manish Kothari) was not that he had done something which was beyond his scope of profession i.e. indulging in some activities which were totally unconnected with the chartered accountancy.
The plea of the petitioner that he has acted on the basis of information and record provided to him cannot be rejected outrightly at this stage, the court said. While granting bail to Kothari, the court imposed certain conditions including that he would surrender his passport; not leave the country without prior permission, and appear before the Court/Investigating Agency as and when required.
According to the ED, it registered the money laundering case following an FIR by the CBI in Kolkata against Satish Kumar, the then Commandant of the BSF. Mondal was allegedly involved in the multi-crore cattle smuggling along with Kumar, other government employees, and private individuals, according to the CBI FIR.
Case Title: Manish Kothari v. Director of Enforcement Ministry of Finance Dept. of Revenue Headquarter Investigation Unit
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