Mumbai: Noting that there was nothing on record to show that the bribe was generated from the proceeds of crime, a special PMLA court on Tuesday granted bail to two contractual staffers of the Enforcement Directorate arrested by the investigating agency almost two years ago for spying on them and illegally passing case related documents in a money laundering case from the agency’s office to the help of accused Amar Mulchandani of the Seva Vikas Co-Operative Bank. The judge referred to the order granting bail to Mulchandani’s employee Bablu Sonkar. The judge had concluded that the amount which was paid to Bablu Sonkar was a meager amount of Rs 53,000.
“Even while deciding that application, I have concluded that considering the long period of incarceration coupled with the fact that the amount involved is meager, the accused is entitled to get benefit (of bail),” the judge said. Of the two contractual workers, Yogesh Wagule, 45, was a data entry operator and Vishal Kudekar, an office boy.
The judge said that a separate offence regarding the incident of bribery has been registered at Worli Police Station and is not a predicate offence or the basis of the ED’s case. “So far as the triple test is concerned, nothing on record to show that the…accused is at flight risk Nothing on record to show that there is any chance that the accused will abscond, will tamper with the prosecution evidence and witnesses. In view of the aforesaid discussions, the accused is entitled for bail,” the judge said in two separate orders.
