West Bengal cattle smuggling case: Delhi HC reserves order on Enamul Haque's bail plea

The Delhi High Court has reserved the order on a bail plea moved by Enamul Haque, arrested in connection with a Prevention of Money Laundering case about cattle smuggling across the India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal.

The Delhi High Court has reserved the order on a bail plea moved by Enamul Haque, arrested in connection with a Prevention of Money Laundering case about cattle smuggling across the India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal. Enamul Haque was accused of illegal cattle smuggling by the CBI and ED.

During the arguments, his lawyers submitted that, as of date, he has spent more than 3 years and 6 months in custody, even though no charge has been framed against him in any case. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court in the CBI case on January 22 but was arrested by the ED immediately thereafter. He has been in pre-trial incarceration for more than 2 years in the ED case. He has been conducting legitimate business and paying his taxes honestly and he has been framed in the case. He has a good case on merit and shall be exonerated. The transactions alleged by ED are prima facie false and based on hearsay.

As noted in the submissions, the bench of Justice Jyoti Singh had reserved the order in the matter for March 27, 2024, after the conclusion of the arguments. Senior Advocate Siddharth Aggarwal and Advocate Gaurav Kakar appeared for Enamul Haque in the matter. The trial court in the matter earlier noted that the prosecution complaint (charge sheet) has been filed by the ED under Sections 44 and 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 for the commission of an offence under Sections 3 and 70 of PMLA punishable under Section 4 of PMLA.

Special Judge CBI, while taking cognizance of the ED chargesheet, said that there was sufficient material to proceed against the accused. Accordingly, cognizance of the offence under Sections 3 and 70 PMLA punishable under Section 4 PMLA was taken. Earlier, the Supreme Court had granted him bail in a CBI case. The bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari had granted bail to Haque in a case involving the smuggling of cattle on the India-Bangladesh border with the help of the Border Security Force (BSF) commandant at the Murshidabad border, West Bengal.

It was alleged that the smuggling of cattle was carried out at Haque's instance and he paid bribes to the security personnel to facilitate the trade. Earlier, the CBI contended that he had taken advantage of the porous borders to move items across. The CBI had contended that Haque is an influential man since he managed to enter India through the border despite the "Look Out Circular.". "If he is released, it would render further investigation vulnerable," contended the CBI. (ANI)

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