Delhi HC grants interim bail to Raghav Magunta in excise policy case

Delhi HC grants interim bail to Raghav Magunta in excise policy caseJuly 18, 2023New Delhi, July 18 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted interim bail to Raghav Magunta, the son of YSR Congress MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, in a money laundering case related to the alleged excise scam, stating medical grounds.However, Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma imposed certain conditions. Firstly, Magunta has been asked to appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials at the probe agency’s Chennai or Delhi office, whenever called. Secondly, he has to confine himself to Chennai and will report to ED officials every Tuesday and Friday at 4 pm. “He shall not leave India without permission of the trial court. He shall surrender passport before the trial court,” the judge said. Moreover, the court emphasised that Magunta’s bail on medical grounds will not be treated as an example for other cases. Earlier, a Delhi court had dismissed the default bail plea of Magunta. Special Judge M.K. Nagpal of the Rouse Avenue Court had said that his default bail in the present case is held to be devoid of any merits and dismissed the plea. The lower court had also, in May, dismissed the bail plea of Magunta filed on the grounds of the deteriorating health of his wife. Judge Nagpal had said that the seriousness of the charges against Magunta, pertaining to money laundering, could not be ignored, and expressed dissatisfaction with the information provided regarding the wife’s medical condition. In April, the court had dismissed his regular bail plea saying that “the court is prima facie of the view that there is a genuine case made out by the investigating agency showing active involvement of the applicant in the commission of the alleged offence of money laundering and this court is not able to arrive at any finding contrary to the said view”. The court had added that the evidence and circumstances that emerged during the course of the investigation “prima facie suggest” that the accused was a participant in the criminal conspiracy to “generate or launder the proceeds of crime of commission of offences”. He was also related, directly or indirectly, to the activities relating to possession, use and projection etc of the said proceeds of crime as untainted money as he was a “key member of the above cartel formed by the accused persons to achieve the illegal objectives of the said conspiracy”, the court had said. He was arrested in February under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED has alleged that Magunta was involved in various activities of possession, use, transfer, etc. of the proceeds of crime worth at least Rs 180 crore. According to the ED’s charge sheet, a part of the alleged Rs 100 crore kickback generated in the crime was used in the Goa Assembly election campaign of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Based on the Central Bureau of Investigation’s FIR, the ED’s money laundering case arose. –IANS spr/ksk