Delhi's Patiala House Court dismisses bail plea of PFI leaders

Delhis Patiala House Court on Tuesday dismissed the bail petition of Muhammad Perwez Muhammad Illiyas and Abdul Muqeet in a money laundering case registered by Enforcement Directorate ED against banned outfit Popular Front of India PFIMuhammad Ilias Abdul Muqeet and Mohammad Perwez Ahmad recently moved court and sought bail on the ground that ED in the present case has adopted delaying tactics and has not filed the complaint within time as such accusedapplicants who are stated to be in judicial custody are entitled for bail in view of the mandate of section 167 2 of CrPCAlso read Jammu and Kashmir Man held for murdering sisterinlaw after she resists rape attemptAdditional Sessions JudgeNIA Judge Shailender Malik on Monday said having considered the submissions at bar and taking note of the fact that the complaint Chargesheet in this case was filed in the court on November 19 2022 which was within the period of 60 days since the arrest of the accused persons by the EDIn such a situation no doubt due to certain lapsesmisunderstandings since ED had mentioned names of certain witnesses whom they had otherwise kept under the category of protected witnesses as per the Witness Protection Scheme 2018 and different provisions of other statute In such a situation merely because the copy of the complaint and documents could not be supplied to the advocates of the accused said the courtRelease on bail 11s 167 2 CrPC Right of statutory baildefault bail to my understanding arises only when investigating agency failed to file the chargesheetcomplaint within the statutory period since the date of arrest of the accused which has not happened in the present case said the courtAs noted above the court has already taken cognizance of the offence and thereafter passed the order dated December 16 2022 wherein this court permitted ED to mention pseudo names of the protected witnesses the relevant places of the complaint and therefore permitted ED to file a fresh complaint with proper pseudo names of the witnesses This must have caused some delay in supplying the copy of the complaint and documents but that by itself cannot be a reason for the grant of bail us 167 2 of CrPCSpecial Public Prosecutor Naveen Kunar Matta alongwith Advocate Muhammad Faizan Khan appeared for ED in the matter while Advocates Satyam Tripathi MujeeburRehman and Shakeel Abbas appeared for the accused persons in the caseMuhammad Perwez Ahmad is the president of PFI Delhi Muhammad Illiyas is the general secretary and Abdul Muqeet is the office secretary of PFI DelhiAccording to the plea the applicants are in judicial custody and are innocent as the investigation agency falsely implicated him in a fabricated case while acting against the very settled principles of law and violating the fundamental rights of the applicantAccording to the ED the accused persons revealed that they have played an active role in bogus cash donations on behalf of PFI and in claiming and projecting PFIs unaccounted cash raised through unknown and suspicious sources as untainted and legitimateED stated that the PMLA investigation has revealed that as a part of a criminal conspiracy hatched by PFI office bearers over the past many years suspicious funds from within the country and abroad have been raised by PFI and related entities and have been clandestinely remitted to India in a concealed manner and deposited in their bank accounts over the yearsThese funds have been raised as a part of the scheduled offence of criminal conspiracy The funds so raised or collected by PFI are thus nothing but proceeds of crime which they have layered placed and integrated through their numerous bank accounts as well as those of their members or sympathizers Thus PFI and its related entities have been involved in the continuous offence of money laundering over the years ED statedED earlier had alleged that Perwez Ahmad was part of a criminal conspiracy since 2018He admitted to having looked after the collection of funds in Delhi Investigation revealed that such fund collection exercise was a sham and was falsely projected to be received from PFI sympathizers whereas statements of individuals projected as contributors revealed that these transactions were bogus Hence cash from suspicious sources was nothing but proceeds of crime generated out of criminal conspiracy ED statedIt is evident that Perwez Ahmad deliberately withheld disclosure of true facts and deliberately lied and tried to mislead the investigating officer during the recording of his statements under Section 50 of PMLA 2002 added the probing agencyED earlier stated that the PMLA investigation against PFI in a matter registered in 2018 revealed that more than Rs 120 crores has been deposited in the accounts of PFI and related entities over the years and that a very large part of the same has been deposited in cashPerwez Ahmed and others were arrested from Delhi on September 22 during the largest search operation conducted by a joint team of ED and the National Investigation Agency NIA and state police forces arresting 106 PFI members from 15 statesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever