High Court upholds acquittal of a person accused of money laundering

Case Details: Enforcement Officer, Enforcement Directorate v. Laxmi Narayan Roy - [2022] 137 taxmann.com 404 (Calcutta)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• • Bibek Chaudhuri, J.
  • Ranjan Roy for the Appellant.
  • Mritunjoy Chatterjee and Debapriya Majumder for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

In the instant case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed an appeal before the High Court against the acquittal order of the respondent passed by the Magistrate.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) lodged a complaint before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate alleging violation of section 9 on ground, that they conducted search at residence and office of the respondent and recovered Indian currency notes amounting to Rs. 21.80 lakhs.

It was also alleged that the respondent gave voluntary statement that he had accumulated said amount from commission for conversion of Bangladeshi currency notes to Indian currency notes.

The respondent further admitted that he was not an authorized dealer in foreign exchange and he was doing such business without any licence required under FERA.

However, at the time of the trial of case, the respondent changed his stand and took a plea that his confessional statement was recorded by force and coercion.

The respondent also pleaded that he accumulated seized money from his construction business and submitted a series of documents in order to prove the same.

It was noted that two views were apparent on face of record; first, allegation of accumulation of money by way of illegal foreign exchange and payment of money illegally to different persons and secondly, respondent accumulated money by way of construction business.

High Court Held

The Calcutta High Court held that when two views are possible, the view that help the accused and in favour of him shall be accepted. Therefore the court dismissed the appeal filed by ED assailing order of acquittal of respondent passed by Magistrate.

List of Cases Referred to

• C. Ronald v. U.T. of Andaman & Nicobar Islands AIR 2011 SC (Supp) 673 (para 10)
• State of Haryana v. Sher Singh AIR 1981 SC 1021 (para 11).