A Strong Prima Facie Case Made Out In His Favour: Bombay HC Grants Bail To ABIL Group Founder Avinash Bhosale In Money Laundering Case

The Bombay High Court has granted bail to Avinash Bhosale, founder of ABIL Group in a money laundering case.

The Court said that the accused has been able to satisfy the first limb of stringent test under Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA).

A Single Bench of Justice Manish Pitale observed, “Having rendered the aforesaid findings, this Court is of the opinion that the applicant has been able to satisfy the first limb of the stringent test contemplated under Section 45 of the PMLA and insofar as the present case is concerned, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the applicant is not guilty of the offences for which he is being prosecuted. The applicant is already granted bail in the predicate offences and hence, even the second limb can be said to be satisfied.”

Senior Advocate Aabad Ponda appeared on behalf of the applicant while Advocate Hiten Venegaonkar appeared on behalf of the respondents.

In this case, the applicant/accused was arrested in June 2022 and was in jail since then. As per the case of the respondent i.e., Enforcement Directorate (ED), the applicant was arraigned as an accused in the third supplementary prosecution complaint. Prior to that, he was summoned and statements were recorded in the office of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He was also an accused in the predicate offence registered in March 2020, wherein offences under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (PC Act), were registered, apart from the offence of cheating under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). In the predicate offence, he was granted bail by the High Court.

The allegation against him was that Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) received loan amount and amount towards investments totalling ₹3983 Crores starting from April, 2018, from Yes Bank. It was alleged that the said amount was disbursed periodically on an understanding that DHFL would route about 600 crores back to the promoters of the Yes Bank. As a consequence, the amount disbursed to DHFL was treated as proceeds of crime. It was further the allegation that part of the said amount went to the co-accused. It was also alleged that the said proceeds of crime then found their way to the applicant and hence, he was liable to face prosecution under the provisions of PMLA.

The High Court after hearing the contentions of the counsel noted, “… there is substance in the contention raised on behalf of the applicant that although the applicant has remained incarcerated from June, 2022, while he can be sentenced to imprisonment for maximum sentence of 7 years under the PMLA, there is virtually no possibility of the trial being completed within a reasonable period of time. It is a matter of record that the CBI case pertaining to the predicate offence and the present case under PMLA have been clubbed under Section 44(1)(c) of the PMLA on 23.02.2023.”

The Court added that the prosecution intends to examine 70 witnesses in the CBI case pertaining to the predicate offence and 187 witnesses are proposed to be examined in this case under PMLA. It said that there is remote possibility of trial even commencing and hence there is hardly any possibility of the trial being completed within a reasonable period of time.

“In this context, the applicant is justified in invoking his fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution of India for speedy trial. The law laid down in this context by the Supreme Court is absolutely clear and reliance placed on the orders of the Supreme Court, including the recent order passed in the case of Manish Sisodia Vs. Vs. Central Bureau of Investigation (supra), on behalf of the applicant is justified. On this ground also the applicant deserves to be enlarged on bail”, it further observed.

Accordingly, the High Court granted bail to the accused on furnishing a personal bond of Rs. 1 lakh with one or two sureties in the like amount to the satisfaction of the Trial Court.

Cause Title- Avinash Nivritti Bhosale v. Directorate of Enforcement & Anr. (Neutral Citation: 2024:BHC-AS:34416)

Appearance:

Applicant: Senior Advocate Aabad Ponda, Advocates Dhawal Mehta, Abinash Pradhan, Garima Agrawal, Yash Dedhia, and Wadia Ghandy.

Respondents: APP Rutuja A. Ambekar, Advocates Hiten Venegaonkar, and Aayush Kedia.

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