Bombay High Court has refused to cancel the bail granted to Yogesh Deshmukh, a builder and a close associate of Shiv Sena Member MLA Pratap Sarnaik. Yogesh Deshmukh is an accused in the money laundering case connected to the National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL) scam.
Justice SK Shinde rejected the application filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking cancellation of Yogesh Deshmukh`s bail.
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the ED, said that the trial court, while granting bail, relied on irrelevant material although a prima-facie case of money laundering had been made out against Yogesh Deshmukh.
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The trial court had rejected the bail one time earlier and so, Singh had contended that there was no change in circumstances for the court to review its first order.
MRA Marg Police Station had registered an FIR in September 2013 against NSEL, its directors and key officials and 25 defaulters. In the complaint, it was alleged that “genuine investors were defrauded of their investments by way of serious misappropriations, since NSEL allowed trading on the commodities of sellers without ensuring goods of appropriate quantity and quality were stored in exchange controlled warehouses, which resulted in thousands of investors trading in “non-existent goods.”
It was in connection with this case that the ED had started investigations against Sarnaik’s company and came to know about dealings between the politician and Yogesh Deshmukh. So on April 6, 2021, Deshmukh was arrested by the probe agency. On June 4, the ED filed a chargesheet and later the court granted bail to Yogesh Deshmukh.
Yogesh Deshmukh’s lawyer Rajiv Chavan and Aniket Nikam raised an issue about the maintainability of the ED’s plea.
Chavan said that “unless the accused is actually released on bail, the prosecution could not have applied for cancellation of bail.” He was granted bail by a magistrate’s court but the agency had taken a stay on his release, so the builder is still languishing in jail.
Justice SK Shinde, while going through the arguments from both sides, observed that the lower court, while granting bail, had noted that “there was no progress in the investigation at all” and that “no efforts were made by the prosecution to question the co-accused at all”.
The court noted that although the co-accused were granted protection by the Apex Court, the order had not precluded the prosecution from questioning the co- accused associated with Sarnaik’s company.
Justice Shinde said that even before the high court, the ED had not placed any material suggesting progress in the investigation against Yogesh Deshmukh, so it seems ” the prosecution does not intend to proceed with the investigation against the accused; yet at the same time, would oppose bail plea of the accused on the ground that accused’s release may adversely afect “meaningful” investigation.”
“I do not see substance in this approach of the prosecution. Even otherwise, the prosecution case rests founded on documentary evidence and, therefore, even if the applicant is released on bail, chances of tampering with the prosecution evidence are weak and faint,” he added.
The court further noted that other accused in the NSEL scam were already granted bail.
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Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/law/story/bombay-hc-bail-shiv-sena-mla-pratap-sarnaik-close-aide-money-laundering-case-1850774-2021-09-09
