New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday (September 10) granted bail to Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Anubrata Mondal’s daughter Sukanya Mondal, arrested in a money laundering case connected to a cattle smuggling racket in West Bengal, noting that the trial may take a long time to get concluded.
Sukanya Mondal was arrested by ED in April last year
Sukanya Mondal, whose father Anubrata Mondal is also facing charges in the case, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on April 26, 2023 and the allegations against her is that she had used her company/firm accounts to launder the money, proceeds of crime, which was received by her father.
Sukanya Mondalis is a woman and entitled to bail under proviso to section 45 of PMLA: High Court
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna, while granting Sukanya Mondal bail in the case, said that she is a woman and is entitled to bail under proviso to section 45 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
The High Court also noted that Sukanya Mondal is not an accused in the predicate (the main case of cattle smuggling) offence and that she may be an educated woman having her business and commercial enterprise, but it cannot be overlooked that the allegations against her are essentially in the context of her father and that she in her commercial ventures has laundered the money received by her father as a bribe.
The High Court directed Sukanya Mondal to not leave the country without court’s prior permission, not try to contact, threaten or influence any of the witnesses and to not communicate with or come in contact with the witnesses.
What did Sukanya Mondal submit?
Sukanya Mondal had moved the High Court challenging a trial court order refusing to grant her bail. She submitted that she is 31-year-old single lady, has clean antecedents, is not a previous convict, has deep roots in the society, there is no apprehension of her running from the trial and her custody in the case is no more required for any purpose by the ED as the investigations are complete and the charge sheet stands filed in the court and her further detention in jail would amount to pre-trial conviction.
ED opposed the bail plea of Sukanya Mondal
The ED opposed the bail plea of Sukanya Mondal, submitting that she is involved in the offence of money laundering which is an economic threat to national interest and that considering the parameters of section 45(1) of PMLA as well as the gravity of the offence, it cannot be held that she is not guilty of the alleged offences or that she is not likely to commit any such offence while on bail. The ED also alleged that she did not co-operate with investigation and further investigation is underway and she is required by the ED to trace further proceeds of crime.
The ED case stems from a case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleging that Anubrata Mondal, along with Satish Kumar, the then BSF commandant, other public servants and private persons, was involved in the multi-crore cattle smuggling racket.
