LUCKNOW The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Tuesday granted anticipatory bail to Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Niharika Singh in the Anee bullion case. Her husband, Ajit Kumar Gupta, is the owner of Anee Bullion Industries, which allegedly ran a Ponzi scheme, duping hundreds of investors of crores of rupees. He is the alleged mastermind of the around ₹600 crore Anne Bullion Industries fraud case.
A single-judge bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarthi passed the order on the anticipatory bail plea of the IFS officer.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered a money laundering case against Niharika Singh, her husband Ajit Kumar Gupta, and others. According to the agency, the couple collected huge sums of money from gullible investors through fraudulent schemes. Niharika Singh is accused of helping her husband in layering the proceeds of crime through various companies and using them to purchase immovable properties, said the ED. She allegedly used her influence to persuade people to invest in Anee Bullion.
The court granted anticipatory bail to Niharika Singh, considering that she cooperated with the investigation and no charge sheet was filed against her in 12 cases related to the scam. The court added that if Singh is taken into custody, she will be released on furnishing two sureties.
Due to her active involvement in raising funds by canvassing in various functions organized by Ajit Kumar Gupta and his companies, Singh was referred as the first lady of the Anee Group of Companies.
{{/usCountry}}Due to her active involvement in raising funds by canvassing in various functions organized by Ajit Kumar Gupta and his companies, Singh was referred as the first lady of the Anee Group of Companies.
{{/usCountry}}She allegedly aided her husband in commission of scheduled offences and generation of proceeds of crime to the tune of ₹44.44 crore.
The complaint stated that the applicant actively and knowingly assisted her husband in acquisition, possession, layering, concealment and utilization of proceeds of crime to the tune of ₹2.03 crore and, therefore, she committed the offence of money laundering as defined under Section 3 and punishable under Section 4 of PMLA, 2002.
She was made an accused in 12 cases relating to the scheduled offences, but after investigation, her name had not been included in the charge sheet submitted in respect of any of those 12 cases. The trial court issued a non-bailable warrant against the applicant .
Having considered the aforesaid facts and circumstances of the case coupled with the fact that the applicant is a woman, she stands absolved in all the scheduled offences and has not been arrested during investigation of the present case, which stands concluded, I am of the view that the applicant is entitled to be released on anticipatory bail, said the court.
Accordingly, the anticipatory bail application stands allowed, added the court. The court also directed Singh to make herself available for interrogation by a police officer as and when required. The court directed the applicant not to leave India without the permission of the court.