MUMBAI: Observing that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has “not substantiated” its case, Delhi high court on Thursday granted bail to former Mumbai police chief Sanjay Pandey in an alleged case of money laundering of Rs 4.5 crore registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against him in connection with alleged phone tapping between 2009 and 2017 of National Stock Exchange (NSE) employees.“Nothing has been produced before me to demonstrate that (Pandey) employed any corrupt or illegal means to obtain a valuable thing or pecuniary advantage for himself. No offence under section 13(1)(d) PC Act can be alleged to have been committed as no presumption treating the receipt of monies as illegal gratification can be drawn,’’ said Justice Jasmeet Singh in his order granting him bail on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh with two sureties in like amount.For grant of bail on merit under the prevention of money laundering act (PMLA) the court has to assess the matter on broad probabilities and the HC after hearing both sides, concluded that “no (underlying) scheduled offence is prima facie made out, concomitantly there cannot be proceeds of crime having been generated, as there is no criminal activity relating to a scheduled offence.’’“Prima facie, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the applicant (Pandey) is not guilty of the (money laundering) offence’’ the court observed.Pandey is unlikely to walk out immediately though. He is in custody in the underlying phone tap case filed by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and will remain incarcerated till he gets bail in that case as well. His plea for bail in the CBI case is pending before the special CBI court at Rouse Avenue in Delhi and his lawyer Ranbir Singh from Mumbai said they planned to seek an expedited hearing now. His counsel Akhil Sibal had argued that there was ..
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