PACL Scam: Delhi High Court grants bail to accused Chandra Prakash Khandelwal in ED case

The Delhi High Court recently granted bail to Mumbai based stock broker Chandra Prakash Khandelwal, an accused in the money laundering case connected to the PACL chit-fund scam..In an order pronounced on February 21, Justice Yogesh Khanna said that transactions alleged to be the offence of money laundering have not been identified by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) during its probe into the predicate offence.The Court noted that all the main accused in the scheduled offence and the offence of money laundering have either been granted bail or have not been arrested. It further said that several entities and individuals, who were the alleged intermediary layers between PACL and the petitioner and were direct recipients of PACL funds, were not made accused by the ED.“Further considering the order dated 03.09.2020 wherein all remaining co-accused in this ECIR were admitted to bail, this Court has every reason to say the petitioner has passed the test of broad probabilities. Admittedly twin conditions of Section 45 (supra) does not put an absolute restraint on grant of bail or require a positive finding qua guilt,” the Court said..The ED has alleged that Khandelwal was involved in dealing with proceeds of crime connected with PACL, in transferring of funds from PACL through various companies and in purchasing properties out of the said funds..After considering the case, the bench ordered Khandelwal to be released on bail on his executing a personal bond of ₹25 lakhs with one surety foo the like amount..Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan along with advocates Manu Sharma, Nitesh Jain, Anuj Berry, Hridhay Khurana, Adrish Guha, Shiv Johar, Shreedhar Kale, Abhudaya Sharma, Somit Kumar Singh and Sanjana Mehra appeared for the petitioner.ED was represented through its special counsel Zoheb Hossain and advocates Vivek Gurnani, Siddharth Kaushik and Kavish Garach..[Read Order]