A view of the Supreme Court.
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has allowed bail to Souvik Bhattacharya, son of TMC leader and President of West Bengal Board of Primary Education Manik Bhattacharya, in a money laundering case in connection with the teachers recruitment scam, having noted flaw in the proceedings and non application of the mind by the special court.
A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal noted though there was no order passed by the special court for issuance of summons or warrant against the appellant, a summons under Section 61 CrPC came to be issued on December 22, 2022 requiring the appellant to appear before the special court on January 07, 2023.
The appellant, in the case, appeared before the special court, which sent him to judicial custody and declined him relief of bail.
"Since there was no order passed by the special court for issuance of the summons or warrant, in our opinion, the application of the appellant seeking bail could not have been entertained. There was a basic flaw in the proceedings conducted before the Special Court," the bench said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) led by Additional Solicitor General S V Raju accepted that the appellant was not arrested during the course of investigation and also when the prosecution complaint was filed before the special court.
"In absence of any order for issuance of summons or warrant under Section 204 or under any other provision of CrPC, the summons could not have been issued or served upon the appellant nor he could have been arrested or taken into custody," the bench said.
Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra for the appellant submitted that it was a mistake on his part in surrendering on the wrong legal advice given to him.
He said on December 07, 2022, the special court while taking cognisance of the offence had observed that then Minister Partha Chatterjee, Arpita Mukherjee and Manik Bhattacharya were in judicial custody, therefore there was no question of issuing any process. With regard to other 11 accused, the special court said necessary order for issuance of summons would be issued at a later stage, yet the summons came to be issued and served upon the appellant.
The counsel said, respecting the summons of the court, the appellant had voluntarily surrendered before the court and since then, he is in judicial custody.
He also submitted that in absence of any order summoning the appellant, he could not have been taken into custody, even if the cognisance of the offence was taken against him.
"We fail to understand as to how summons came to be issued when the special court had specifically mentioned in the order that in respect of the other eleven accused necessary order for issuance of summons will be issued at a later stage," the bench said.
The court said this is one of the cases of non-application of mind by the court, wherein the special (CBI) court though had not passed any order summoning the present appellant, on taking the cognisance of the offences under the PMLA by order of December 07, 2022, issued summons to the appellant in the Form prescribed under Section 61 CrPC.
The petitioner challenged the Calcutta High Court's order of October 18, 2023, declining him bail.
His plea contended he was not an accused for any scheduled offence/predicate offence which is sine qua non for registration of a case under the PMLA against a person. Furthermore, the petitioner was never arrested during the investigation.
The Enforcement Directorate claimed Manik Bhattacharya being the president of West Bengal Board of Primary Education has abused and misused his high official position and in pursuance thereof he compelled 530 self-financed DEl Ed Colleges to give him an amount of Rs 50,000 per institute. In order to launder the said extorted money, Souvik Bhattacharya in connivance with his father formed a proprietary concern namely M/s Acuere Consultancy Services.