E-Paper
SC upholds bail for Preeti Chandra; restricts her from leaving NCR
The apex court was hearing an appeal filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) challenging the Delhi high court’s order on the ground that the investigations revealed her “active involvement” in money laundering proceeds of crime
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with the bail granted to Preeti Chandra, the wife of former Unitech promoter Sanjay Chandra, by the Delhi high court in a money laundering case but directed her not to leave the limits of the National Capital Region (NCR) or dispose of any property without trial court’s permission.
The bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said, “We are not inclined to interfere with the high court order under Article 136 of the Constitution, particularly since she has undergone 620 days of custody.”
The Court also noted the proviso to Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) dealing with the grant of bail which says, “Provided that a person, who is under the age of 16 years or is a woman or is sick or infirm...may be released on bail, if the special court so directs.”
The apex court was hearing an appeal filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) challenging the Delhi high court’s order on the ground that the investigations revealed her “active involvement” in money laundering proceeds of crime not as the wife of Sanjay Chandra alone, but as a director in several companies situated in Cayman Islands, Singapore and Mauritius that were used to take the money collected by innocent homebuyers who invested in Unitech housing projects out of India.
In order to assuage the concerns of the ED, the bench imposed further conditions for the grant of bail by directing Preeti “not to leave the limits of the NCR region, report to the investigating officer once in two weeks and not dispose of any property without permission of the special PMLA court”.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for Preeti told the Court that she was already in the process of giving up her foreign citizenship and had applied for Indian citizenship. He pointed out that the Indian authorities should be asked to expedite her citizenship process as in the event her existing citizenship is gone, she will be rendered stateless.
The Delhi high court in its order held that Preeti will give up her citizenship in the Dominican Republic, a country having no extradition treaty with India.
The Supreme Court told Sibal, “You have to give up your citizenship. We are aware of how much money has gone abroad to the Cayman Islands.”
Incidentally, CJI Chandrachud was part of the bench which ordered a forensic audit of the Unitech group that revealed how the money of homebuyers was illegally diverted abroad by the promoters of Unitech.
However, to allow time for Indian authorities to process her request for Indian citizenship, “The application (for citizenship) shall be processed as per law. The time for surrendering her Dominican Republic citizenship is extended by two weeks,” the bench said.
Sibal argued that the offence for which Preeti Chandra is in jail is punishable with a maximum sentence of seven years. She was arrested on October 4, 2021, and the charge sheet is yet to be submitted. In this scenario, he said there was no chance of trial beginning soon and this entitled her to remain on bail.
The ED represented by additional solicitor general (ASG) SV Raju took the Court through the evidence to suggest that Unitech group had diverted Rs.380 crore from the money deposited by homebuyers and parked it abroad through a web of companies. From this amount, Rs.107.4 crore was transferred to a firm called Prakausali through its holding company Mayfair and Preeti Chandra was the director of both companies.
Preeti has further been accused of incorporating, overseeing and managing a benami organisation called Trikar Group along with her husband. It was alleged that the laundered money was kept in foreign accounts of Trikar Group in the Cayman Islands, Singapore and Mauritius and a sum of Rs.401 core was brought into Unitech’s Indian entities between 2015 and 2018.
Looking at the submissions, the Supreme Court told ED, “No doubt there is copious material against her. But what is bothering us is that the maximum punishment to be imposed is seven years and she has already undergone over 600 days in custody and being a woman, it may dilute the rigors of Section 45. With 7,000 odd pages of records and hundreds of witnesses to be examined, by the time the trial is over, her sentence will be over.”
ASG Raju said that the investigation in the case got delayed due to the accused against whom collection of evidence has become a challenge as it is spread over several countries.
At his request, the bench said that being a woman won’t necessarily entitle a person to bail as the law officer felt that this order may be cited as a precedent in other cases for seeking bail.
Preeti was arrested in connection with the money laundering case registered by the ED in 2018 against the ex- Unitech promoters Sanjay and Ajay Chandra. She was arrested from the airport in March 2021 while trying flee the country.
