‘What is conviction rate in PMLA cases? you detain a person for years’: SC to ED

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to Saumya Chaurasia, the deputy secretary of former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who is implicated in a money-laundering case associated with an alleged coal-levy scam.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Ujjal Bhuyan noted that Chaurasia was in custody for more than a year and nine months, charges are yet to be framed against her and the trial has not begun.

Justice Bhuyan raised concerns about the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) practices, particularly its low conviction rate and tendency to keep individuals in custody for extended periods without framing charges. He remarked: “Without charges being framed, how long can you keep a person in jail? [Maximum] sentence is 7 years! What is the rate of conviction in PMLA cases? In Parliament they said only in 41 cases there has been conviction...then? You keep a person in jail for YEARS!”

The top court directed the Chhattisgarh government not to reinstate Chaurasia in service till further orders. It directed Chaurasia to appear before the trial court as and when required and not to influence the witnesses. The top court was hearing Chaurasia’s plea challenging an August 28 order of the high court by which bail was denied to her.

Justice Datta expressed surprise at the High Court’s observation that the trial had not started because warrants could not be executed, questioning whether this was a valid reason to keep someone incarcerated.

Senior Advocate Siddharth Dave, representing Chaurasia, argued that his client had spent a significant time in custody without being released even once, and the trial had not yet commenced. He also pointed out that three co-accused had been released on interim bail.Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the ED, opposed the bail plea, arguing that Chaurasia, as a civil servant, should be held to a higher standard. He emphasised her alleged pivotal role in the case and the need for a stringent approach when dealing with “rampant corruption” by a civil servant.

On Tuesday, the top court had told the ED that it was inclined to grant interim bail to Chaurasia, a Chhattisgarh-cadre civil servant who was a deputy secretary and an officer on special duty (OSD) in the office of the former chief minister.On December 14 last year, the top court had dismissed Chaurasia’s bail plea, saying she was prima facie involved in money laundering.

It had said the ED had collected sufficient evidence to come to the conclusion that Chaurasia was actively involved in the offence of money laundering as defined in section 3 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).The federal probe agency had, in 2022, alleged that a “grand conspiracy” was hatched in the natural resources-rich state to perpetrate a “coal-levy scam”, in which a total amount of Rs 540 crore was “extorted” over the last two years.The money-laundering case stems from a complaint lodged by the income-tax department.The ED investigation relates to “a massive scam in which illegal levy of Rs 25 was being extorted for every tonne of coal transported in Chhattisgarh by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen”, the agency had said. with agency inputs