Court dismisses bail pleas of ex-chief engineer and sub contractor accused of money laundering

New Delhi [India], October 24 : The Rouse Avenue court on Thursday dismissed the bail pleas of two accused in the Delhi Jal Board Money laundering case. The pleas of sub contractor Anil Kumar Agarwal and Jagdish Kumar Aroa the former Chief Engineer of Delhi Jal Board.
They have been charge-sheet along with other accused by the ED in a money laundering case linked to the procurement of electromagnetic metres for the Delhi jal board.
Special judge Bhupendra Singh dismissed both pleas after hearing submissions and considering the facts and circumstances of the case.
"I find no merits in the present application and is as such disposed of as dismissed," the Special judge said in the order passed on October 24.
They have sought regular bail because the trial would take a long time to be completed.
The Court said, " The court sees no impediment for the trial to move on swiftly, more so when detailed threadbare arguments covering almost all the aspects, that spread over many weeks have been advanced on behalf of the applicant/accused. As such, arguments on the point of charge should not consume much time."
" Moreover, with only 35 witnesses having been cited in the complaint, the Court sees no reason for the trial not getting completed within a reasonable time," the judge added.
Advocate Nagesh Behl, Counsel for the accused Anil Kumar Aggarwal submitted that he has been falsely implicated in the present case.
It was submitted that in the case registered by CBI based on which the present ECIR was registered by the ED against Mis NKG Infrastructure Ltd. & Ors. the accused was not named. It was further submitted that the applicant/accused is an aged person suffering from various health ailments and has been behind bars for more than Eight months.
It was submitted that only incriminating material collected against the accused by the complainant is unreliable and contradictory statements of co-accused accused Tajinder Pal Singh. It was argued that the ED has presented twisted and contorted facts as the Delhi Jail Board contract was not awarded at an inflated price of Rs. 38 crores as alleged by the ED in the complaint. The ED claimed that Rs. 1.10 crores were proceeds of crime, however, it was argued that this was untrue because actual profit could not be used to compute proceeds of crime.
On the other hand, the pleas were opposed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Special Counsel Zoheb Hossain, Special Public Prosecutor Manish Jain alongwith Snehal Sharda appeared for ED.
It was argued by the ED that Anil Kumar Aggarwal was involved in submissions of the fake and false performance certificate dated 02.01.2018 and 12.03.2018 in favour of Mis NKG Infrastructure Ltd. at Delhi Jal Board based on which the Delhi Jal Board Contract was awarded to it.
The ED also argued that the accused/applicant had received cash from sham transactions booked with several identities namely M/S Modern Enterprises, M/S Shiva Trading Company, M/S Xpert Solutions and M/S Integrated Hydraulic System during the same time when funds from Delhi Jal Board were received.
It was submitted that the said cash apart from money through banking channels was used by the accused/applicant to pay a bribe amount to accused Jagdish Kumar Arora through accused Tajinder Pal Singh, totalling Rs.3.19 crores. It was further submitted by the ED that there is a plethora of evidence against the accused including a statement under Sec. 50 of PMLA, 2002 of co-accused Tajinder Pal Singh.