The Rouse Avenue Court has ordered to discharge Nitin Bhatnagar, a Maltese Citizen arrested in connection with his alleged involvement in the offence of money laundering in Moser Baer case.
The court has said, “In this case, no suspicion arises that the accused might have committed the offence for which the Supplementary Chargesheet has been filed against him”. The Special Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal in an order passed on Saturday (August 17, 2024) asserted, “It cannot be said that accused may have committed the offence i.e. to say the matter should go to the trial. That is to say, prosecution has failed to make out a prima facie case for framing of charges qua this accused, for which he was being prosecuted by filing the prosecution complaint. If there is no suspicion, then why should the accused go through rigours of trial all the way.”
When there is no iota of legally admissible evidence against him to go for trial, doing so would be itself violative of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, as the same cannot be said to be the procedure established by law. When two views are possible, one which gives rise to some suspicion as distinguished from grave suspicion, the accused will be liable to be discharged, added the court.
During arguments, appearing for Bhatnagar, Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa submitted that the accused argued that the standard of proof for deciding the bail application of an accused under PMLA is different from the standard of proof required for framing of charge, as the yardstick for framing of charge would be on the higher side than the order on the bail, which is to be decided on broad probabilities, both are close to each other.
Along with Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa, Advocate Ashish Hira appeared for Nitin Bhatnagar. The court in its order also noted that the present accused has not been named in the predicate offence. All the corporate entities with regard to the Pristine River Investment Ltd. and IPF Real Estate were admittedly incorporated as per the relevant laws prevailing in the said countries.
The accused was only working as a relationship manager in the Bank of Singapore and he was not controlling any of the corporate entities involved in any of the above-mentioned transactions. Mr. Bhatnagar was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 on August 22, 2023. Lawyers appeared for Bhatnagar earlier submitted that the accused is a citizen of Malta, whereas his father lives in Delhi and his arrest was ‘not legal’ as no permission was there to further investigate the case.
