Bhujbal gets bail in money laundering after 2 yrs

After more than two years of his incarceration in a money laundering case, former Deputy Chief Minister and senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal was on Friday finally granted bail by the Bombay High Court on various grounds, including his frail health and advanced age.

The High Court granted bail to Bhujbal on a personal bond of Rs 5 lakh and directed him to surrender passport and made it mandatory not  to leave Mumbai without seeking permission  from the court.

The relief to Bhujbal, whose bail had earlier been rejected by the PMLA court in December last year, could be attributed largely to a verdict delivered by the Supreme Court in November last year which had struck down section 45 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), after holding it “arbitrary and unconstitutional”.

The two conditions for grant of bail stipulated in the now-struck-down section 45 of PMLA were: that that the Public Prosecutor must be given an opportunity to oppose bail plea and the court must be satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the accused is not guilty of such offence and that he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail.

Earlier, a PMLA court had rejected Bhujbal’s bail plea after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) opposed it, on the grounds that Bhujbal was influential and that he had already been accused of threatening two co-accused to turn approvers in the case.

Seventy-one-year-old Bhujbal had moved the high court in January this year for bail, after a PMLA special court rejected his bail application in December last year.

While rooting invocation of the apex court’s verdict striking down section 45 of PMLA, Bhujbal’s lawyer Salabh Saxena had cited money laundering cases in which meat exporter Moin Qureshi and businessman Yogesh Mittal were granted bail by a special court and the Delhi High Court December 2017 and January this year respectively.

In addition, Bhujbal made an emotional appeal before the court about his advanced age and health and said he was unable to defend his case effectively or seek legal opinion.

Bhujbal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 14, 2016 in connection with two money laundering cases registered against him, his nephew Sameer Bhujbal, other family members and associates. Bhujbals and their associates are being investigated in three corruption cases. Maharashtra’s Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) had filed a charge-sheet against Sr Bhujbal, Sameer and 15 others in the new Maharashtra Sadan scam case in February 2016.

The State ACB on March 28, 2016 filed a second voluminous charge-sheet against him and six others for having allegedly received huge kickbacks to lease a plot of land to a private developer for the construction of a central library at the Kalina campus of the Mumbai University.

Subsequently On March 30, 2016, the ED  filed a 11,500—page charge sheet against Chhagan Bhujbal, his son Pankaj, nephew Sameer, corporate houses like D B Realty, Balwa group of companies, Neelkamal Realtors and Builders Private Limited, Neelkamal Central Apartment LLP and Kakade Infrastructure, in the money laundering case.

In the new Maharashtra Sadan scam case in which Sr Bhujbal and nephew Sameer were granted bail on Wednesday, the ACB had filed a 20,000-page charge-sheet against Sr Bhujbal, Sameer and 15 others, on the basis of documentary evidence, including fund transfers and bank transactions.