Sameer Bhujbal gets bail

HC says he has completed a third of his sentence; cites bail to uncle Chhagan as ground

After former minister Chhagan Bhujbal secured bail last month in a money laundering case, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted bail to his nephew Sameer, a member of the Nationalist Congress Party.

Sameer Bhujbal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on February 1, 2016 in a case of money laundering, siphoning of funds and causing a ₹840-crore loss to the government exchequer. It is alleged that the Bhujbals have accepted cash in lieu of awarding projects to contractors, then channelled it into various companies controlled by them. He was asked to furnish a bail bond of ₹5 lakh.

Chhagan Bhujbal was granted bail on May 4 this year on grounds of his age and that he “cannot be kept in custody for an indefinite period to deny his right to defend himself in accordance with law.” Justice A.S. Gadkari granted bail to the nephew on three grounds: parity, because the uncle who is accused was granted bail; that he has been charged with Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), but on November 23, the Supreme Court declared the Section as unconstitutional; also, because he has spent a third of his sentence under PMLA with the maximum sentence being seven years.

Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the ED, argued that Sameer Bhujbal was responsible for laundering money while senior counsel Vikram Chaudhary, appearing for Mr. Bhujbal, argued that Section 45 of the PMLA had been struck down by the SC.

They have both been charged under Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), Section 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), Section 465 (punishment for forgery), Section 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), Section 471 (Using as genuine a forged 1[document or electronic record]), Section 120 B (Whoever is party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable with death), Section 101 (When such right extends to causing any harm other than death) and Section 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The charge sheet filed by the ED says Chhagan Bhujbal laundered ₹291.71 crore, while his nephew Sameer and son Pankaj had laundered ₹359.30 crore each since March 2006. The agency states the money has been laundered from Mumbai using fraudulent transactions, and that the agency’s probe of the entire proceeds of the money was in progress.