NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday said there was no “rule” that an accused in a money laundering case had to spend at least a year in jail before being granted bail, and gave relief to one of the accused in the Chhattisgarh liquor scam who had spent over nine months in custody.As the counsel appearing for the Enforcement Directorate took the stand that bail could not be granted to the accused as he was arrested in Aug last year and had not completed a year behind bars, a bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said it was not a “rule” to be in custody for a year to get bail.
The ED counsel said SC had been following the one-year custody “benchmark” to grant bail in various cases, including that of former Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji, and argued that the yardstick be followed in the case of liquor scam accused Anwar Dhebar‘s bail plea too.The bench then asked the ED counsel whether he wanted the accused to spend seven years in jail which is the maximum sentence.
Release accused within a week, SC directs ED
The court said trial in the case was not going to wind up in the near future as there were more than 450 witnesses in the predicate offence. The counsel, however, insisted that the accused was a politically connected and influential person and his bail would hamper the trial. The court did not accept his submission and granted Anwar Dhebar bail. It asked the trial court to release the accused within a week on terms and conditions fixed by the special court.SC had said on Jan 17 that in cases where an accused has spent one year in jail and the charges against them in a money laundering case have not yet been framed, they could be considered for bail.The apex court has been granting bail to various accused in money laundering cases after reading down the stringent bail provisions of PMLA by ruling that delay in trial and long incarceration could be grounds to release accused on bail. However, on Jan 17, it had for the first time said that if an accused has spent one year in custody and charges have not been framed, bail can be granted.