The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed a Chhattisgarh-based businessman to continue on bail till the end of his trial in a money laundering case while voicing scepticism about the starkly disproportionate ratio of 5,000 cases filed to a dismal 40 convictions secured by the Directorate of Enforcement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the past decade.
A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan said Sunil Kumar Agarwal and his co-accused, represented by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi and advocate Sriram Parakkat, “deserve to continue on bail during the pendency of the trial”. They had been charged with money laundering in a case linked to coal transportation.
The court made its earlier orders of interim bail in May and July absolute.
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Justice Bhuyan referred to a statement made from the Treasury Bench of Parliament that “5000-odd cases were registered (under PMLA) and conviction was obtained only in 40 cases in 10 years”.
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Justice Kant questioned the quality of prosecution and evidence garnered in PMLA cases. The Bench reminded that ultimately a PMLA case had to be proved in a court of law.
The present case, Justice Kant said, solely relied on the statements given by a handful of persons. The court asked whether such people would be able to stand firm by their oral statements and pass muster before the court as reliable witnesses during trial.
