Anti-Money Laundering Law Misused Like Dowry Law: Supreme Court

The PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) is being used repeatedly to keep people in jail, the Supreme Court said today. A bench pulling up the Enforcement Directorate, said the law is being "misused like the dowry law". The provisions of PMLA cannot be used to keep someone in jail forever, said the two-judge bench of Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih today, granting bail to Arun Pati Tripathi, a former Excise officer from Chhattisgarh.

Tripathi was accused of money laundering in the Chhattisgarh liquor scam case and was arrested in 2023. But despite receiving bail in the current case, he will not be released as he faces another case filed by the Economic Offences Wing.

Lately, the Supreme Court has been critical of central agencies, pulling them up for keeping accused, including political leaders, in jail interminably without evidence. Former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had repeatedly spoken on bail and not jail being the norm.

While giving bail to AAP's Sanjay Singh in the excise policy case, the top court had pointed out that "Nothing has been recovered... there is no trace (of money allegedly received by the AAP as bribes for allotting liquor licences to the 'South Group')".

While granting bail to Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Kavitha in the same case, the court had said it will keep an eye on "fairness and impartiality". 

The Prevention of Money Laundering Act or PMLA is non-bailable since unlike other laws, anyone accused under it has to prove that he is not guilty. 

An accused gets bail only when the court is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is not guilty of the offense, and not likely to commit any further offense while on bail. 

This provision --- listed under Section 45 of the law - was upheld earlier by the Supreme Court. The court, though, allowed bail earlier to an ailing accused, saying the "Proviso to Section 45 (1) of PMLA specifically contemplates that a person who 'is sick or infirm' may be released on bail if the special court so directs".

Earlier, the Supreme Court had rejected Tripathi's bail plea, taking serious objection to his WhatsApp chats with other accused in the case.  "We could have granted you bail right away but we are not doing it for two reasons. Look at the WhatsApp chats. What business you had to share holograms with Anwar Dhebar and he then sends it to Anil Tuteja," the bench had said.

Dhebar, a businessman having political links is alleged to be one of the kingpins in the case, is accused of running a cartel by taking commissions from the liquor retailers and influencing policy decisions with the help of Tripathi, who was then the chairman of Chhattisgarh Marketing Corporation and former bureaucrat Anil Tuteja.