PFI money laundering case: Perwez Ahmad, Abdul Muqeet move interim bail in Delhi HC

New Delhi [India], January 9 : Mohammad Perwez Ahmad and Abdul Muqeet of the Delhi Unit of the banned outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) on Monday moved the High Court seeking interim bail petition in connection with the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) case registered against them.
According to the ED, Mohd Perwez Ahmad is the President of PFI Delhi and Abdul Muqeet is its Office Secretary.
The petitioners through Counsel Mujeeb-ur-Rehman stated that the ED has failed to file a chargesheet within the stipulated time period of 60 days after the date of their arrest. The petitioners have already moved the trial court for default bail under section 437, 167(2)(a) on December 17, 2022.
The trial court then sought a response from ED in the matter and put it for hearing on January 2, 2023.
On January 2, the prosecution failed to file its reply against the bail application and sought more time and the Trial Court put the bail application for January 10, 2023, after 24 days of moving the bail application.
The Bench of Justice, Aneesh Dayal on Monday after going through the submissions of both sides, disposed of the petitions stating that "the next date in the trial court is on January 10, 2023, let the matter be disposed of in the trial court first."
The Delhi High Court then granted liberty to petitioners to approach the court if any grievances left.
However, the ED has claimed that it filed the chargesheet within the time period and the trial court also took cognizance.
After filing the chargesheet, ED later moved an application under section 5 of the Witness Protection Scheme 2018 stating that during the investigation of ED's statement of certain witnesses who were designated as protected witnesses have been recorded as per details given in the application filed in court in a sealed cover.
On December 16, 2022, the trial court allowed the ED application with the direction that the original complaint filed in the court, wherever there is a reference to the name of protected witnesses at any place, it should be replaced by pseudo names. Similar is with regard to reference of any witness/protected witness etc.
According to the plea moved in Delhi High Court, the applicant is in judicial custody and is innocent as Investigation Agency falsely implicated him in a fabricated case while acting against the very settled principles of law and violating the applicant's fundamental rights.
The ED said the accused persons have revealed that they have played an active role in bogus cash donations on behalf of PFI and in claiming and projecting PFI's unaccounted cash raised through unknown and suspicious sources as untainted and legitimate.
It further stated that the PMLA investigation has revealed that as a part of a criminal conspiracy hatched by PFI office bearers over the past many years, suspicious funds from within the country and abroad have been raised by PFI and related entities and have been clandestinely remitted to India in a concealed manner and deposited in their bank accounts over the years.
"These funds have been raised as a part of the scheduled offence of criminal conspiracy. The funds so raised or collected by PFI are thus nothing but proceeds of crime which they have layered, placed and integrated through their numerous bank accounts as well as those of their members or sympathizers. Thus PFI and its related entities have been involved in the continuous offence of money laundering over the years," it added.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) earlier had alleged that Perwez Ahmad was part of a criminal conspiracy since 2018. "He admitted to having looked after the collection of funds in Delhi. Investigation revealed that such fund collection exercise was a sham and was falsely projected to be received from PFI sympathizers whereas statements of individuals, projected as contributors, revealed that these transactions were bogus. Hence, cash from suspicious sources was nothing but proceeds of crime generated out of criminal conspiracy," ED stated.
"It is evident that Perwez Ahmad deliberately withheld disclosure of true facts and deliberately lied and tried to mislead the investigating officer during the recording of his statements under Section 50 of PMLA, 2002," ED stated.
ED had previously stated that the PMLA investigation against PFI in a matter registered in 2018 revealed that more than Rs 120 crores has been deposited in the accounts of PFI and related entities over the years and that a very large part of the same has been deposited in cash.
Perwez Ahmed and several others were arrested from Delhi on September 22, 2022, during the largest search operation conducted by a joint team of ED and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and state police forces, arresting 106 PFI members from 15 states.