In today’s hearing before the top court, Senior Advocate Harish Salve appearing for Babu, stated that he had been inside jail for 13 months. Further, his alleged role in the case is different from Sisodia, whose bail plea was recently rejected by the present bench.
He added that Babu was in effect a junior employee with no policy-making powers.
“Completely bogus case being run by ED, on the face of it. They [Babu and other accused] met after policy was uploaded.”
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju, appearing for the ED, then pressed for a similar order as in Sisodia’s case, where it was ruled that a plea for regular bail can again be pressed if trial is not complete in six months.
The bench refused to direct the same given the long incarceration of Babu.
The ASG then stated that the judgment in Vijay Madanlal states that Section 436A of the Criminal Procedure Code, which calls for release on bail if accused has served half of ordinary sentence in the offence, does not apply to money-laundering cases.
However, Justice Khanna stressed that the provision was an enabling one, and not a disabling one.
Source: Barandbench
