Can’t keep filing supplementary charge sheets to deny default bail: SC to ED

The bench, also comprising Justice Dipankar Datta, was hearing the default bail plea of Prem Prakash, an alleged close aide of former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, who was arrested in August 2022 by the ED in connection with the illegal mining scam on money laundering charges.

The agency claimed to have recovered two AK-47 rifles, 60 live rounds and two magazines from his Ranchi home during raids in connection with the scam.

Justice Khanna told Additional Solicitor General S V Raju who appeared for the probe agency that “in this case, the person is behind bars for 18 months. This is bothering us”. He added that the court “will take it up…in some case…we are putting you to notice on that”. The bench said that “trial has to begin when you arrest an accused.”

Justice Khanna said that the right to bail flows from Article 21 of the Constitution, dealing with the right to life and personal liberty, and pointed out that in the case of Manish Sisodia, arrested in connection with the Delhi excise policy scam, that even the rigour of Section 45 of PMLA will not take away the right of bail.

“We held this in the Manish Sisodia case that if there is long incarceration and undue delay in commencement of trial, the court can grant bail. Section 45 does not bar grant of bail because this right flows from Article 21,” he pointed out.

Giving time to the ED to respond to the legal issues involved, the bench fixed the matter for hearing next in the week commencing April 29, 2024.

Prakash had approached the SC after the state High Court denied him bail in January 2023.

Right to default bail arises when the investigative agency fails to file a charge sheet against the accused within the time specified by the Criminal Procedure Code.