On Wednesday, the Bombay high court granted bail to Sameer Bhujbal (44), the nephew of former deputy CM Chhagan Bhujbal, in a money concealment on Rs 5 lakh. Sameer was kept in Arthur Road jail and will be released on Thursday, that is today, 7th June 2018.
On May 4th, Chhagan Bhujbal was granted bail by a regular bench which gave a reason to the lawyers of Sameer Bhujbal to plea Justice Ajay Gadkari for his bail on the grounds of parity. The lawyers who are leading the case for Sameer are Vikram Chaudhary and Sujay Kantawala. Where as the uncle- nephew duo had spent two years in custody after arrest in early 2016, out of the 50 accused in the Rs 840-crore case.
According to TOI, the HC directed that Sameer cannot leave the state without its permission and his passport be deposited. Sameer has been “languishing in jail since his arrest on February 8, 2016,” said his plea. The Bhujbals’ case is that with the Supreme Court having held section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) unconstitutional, it would no longer be an impediment for granting of bail, as it did earlier.
The section had made it difficult to get bail as it required the accused to show s/he was not involved in money laundering. The HC had granted Chhagan Bhujbal bail only after the SC struck down section 45 of the PMLA.
The ED had opposed Sameer’s bail plea on the grounds that his role was greater than Chhagan Bhujbal’s and that a fresh amendment in PMLA revives and resurrects the twin conditions deleted as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Sameer’s lawyers argued that the PMLA provision which made bail restrictive was struck down by the SC and has not been revived by the legislature. The laundering case was registered by the ED in 2016. Meanwhile, few days ago, Chhagan Bhujbal who was admitted to Lilavati Hospital after getting bail, was discharged.