E-Paper
Money laundering case: PMLA court grants bail to ex-revenue officer
The PMLA court allowed a bail application moved by Naresh Kumar Sheokhand, 63, former district revenue officer-cum-land acquisition collector of Panchkula, on bail bonds of ₹1 lakh along with one surety in the like amount.
A Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Special Court, Panchkula, granted bail to former district revenue officer-cum-land acquisition collector of Panchkula in a money laundering case linked to alleged financial fraud with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Haryana State Infrastructural and Industrial Cooperation (HSIIDC).
The court presided over by Rajeev Goyal relied on a recent Supreme Court order that makes it mandatory for ED “to furnish copy of written grounds of arrest to the arrested person as a matter of course and without exception.”
The PMLA court allowed a bail application moved by Naresh Kumar Sheokhand, 63, former district revenue officer-cum-land acquisition collector of Panchkula, on bail bonds of ₹1 lakh along with one surety in the like amount.
The Supreme Court on October 3 granted relief to Pankaj Bansal of real estate company M3M India in a money laundering case linked to a corruption case registered by the Haryana anti-corruption bureau (ACB) against suspended special CBI judge Sudhir Parmar, an additional session judge-rank judicial officer who was also holding the charge of special PMLA court before he was suspended.
Sheokhand had pressed on “concession of regular bail on parity and on the strength of the plea that his arrest, was not in conformity with the provisions of Section 19 of PMLA.”
“The apex court on interpretation of Section 19 has laid down that it is necessary to furnish a copy of written grounds of arrest to the arrested person as a matter of course and without exception,” ruled the order of PMLA court. The court order read, “Written grounds of arrest were only shown to applicant-accused for being read. He accordingly read the grounds of arrest but was never supplied a copy thereof. This, to my mind, was no compliance of Section 19 as per the ruling of the Supreme Court in Pankaj Bansal wherein as well, ED’s investigating officer had merely read out or permitted reading of the grounds of arrest of the appellants.”
Case:
The money laundering investigation against Sheokhand is linked to a case by the Haryana Vigilance Bureau in July 2015 in which he was charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and criminal misconduct as a public servant. In connection to the FIR, he was arrested in May 2015 and granted bail in September 2015. The investigation was later transferred to CBI leading to registration of FIR by CBI in January 2017.
As there were “allegations regarding misappropriation and diversion of funds of HSIIDC and NHAI to the ineligible beneficiaries in an unauthorised manner to generate proceeds of crime,” ED registered ECIR in March 2021.
ED had arrested him on July 24 and said Sheokand, the then DRO-cum-LAC of Panchkula, “in connivance with” other private persons fraudulently transferred NHAI and HSIIDC funds meant for acquisition of lands to “ineligible” persons causing loss to the exchequer of about ₹38 crore.
