The Supreme Court of India.
Credit: Reuters Photo
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to Saumya Chaurasia, then deputy secretary of former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, in a money laundering case connected to an alleged coal levy scam.
"How long can you keep her under custody? Five years, of seven years," a bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta, and Ujjal Bhuyan asked Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, representing the Enforcement Directorate.
The court also pointed there has been a very low conviction in ED cases.
Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, representing Chaurasia, submitted all the co-accused have been granted bail.
The court said that she has already been incarcerated for more than a year and nine months.
The bench also noted that charges are yet to be framed against her and that the trial has not begun in the matter.
Dave said that there is no certainty when the trial will begin in the matter, even as Raju opposed the bail plea.
“Without expressing any view on merits, we direct petitioner's release on interim bail subject to terms to satisfaction of trial court," the bench said, after hearing the counsel.
The court also directed Chaurasia to appear before the trial court as and when required and she should not influence the witnesses.
Raju said Chaurasia is a very influential civil servant and releasing her on bail would jeopardise the trial.
The court, however, made it clear to the Chhattisgarh government that she should not be reinstated in service till further orders.
The court passed the order on a plea filed by Chaurasia challenging an August 28 order of the high court which declined to entertain her bail plea.
The ED had alleged that in 2022, alleged that a "grand conspiracy" was hatched in the natural resources-rich state to perpetrate a "coal-levy scam", in which a total amount of Rs 540 crore was "extorted" over the last two years. The money-laundering case stems from a complaint lodged by the Income-Tax department.
During the hearing, the apex court also questioned the central agency for its low conviction rate in Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) matters and expressed its discontent on keeping people incarcerated without even framing of charges.
The court said the maximum sentence is seven years’ and without framing of charges, how long can a person stay behind the bars.
The bench asked Raju, “What is the rate of conviction in PMLA cases? In Parliament they said only in 40 cases there has been conviction...”.
In August, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs informed the Lok Sabha that a total of 5,297 cases were lodged under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the ED between 2014 and 2024 while conviction was secured in 40 cases.