Debangana Ray
Published on July 2, 2022 at 21:12 IST
The Punjab and Haryana High Court granted regular bail to former Chief of Punjab Charanjit Singh Channi’s nephew Bhupinder Singh in a money laundering case relating to sand mining due to the “timing of registration of the FIR due to political reasons.”
The court, however, stated that Bhupinder’s passport shall remain in the custody of ED and that he would not tamper with the evidence.
In a detailed order, the HC stated, “As per ED’s investigation, the petitioner was helping Kudratdeep Singh alias Lovie, who was allotted the lease licence for mining work and there is no direct allegation against him that he was overseeing the finances of Kudratdeep Singh.
Therefore, the court is convinced that the petitioner qualifies the triple test laid down under Section 45 of PMLA as the court has nothing to presume adverse in the conduct of the petitioner and since all the documents are already in the custody of the investigating agency.
“There is no possibility of the petitioner tampering with the same. ”
According to the HC, the petitioner has been in custody since February 3 and a period of around five months has lapsed, therefore, the petitioner cannot be kept in judicial custody for an unlimited period.
Bhupinder was arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in February this year over money laundering allegations in connection with the sand mining case in 2018.
He is lodged in Central Jail Kapurthala. The central agency had also arrested one of his associates Kudratdeep Singh in this case.
In his plea, seeking regular bail, Bhupinder had argued that the state police had already probed the allegations and submitted a final report , and he was not named among the accused.