Special PMLA court reserves order on Chhagan Bhujbal's bail plea till 18 December

Mumbai: A special PMLA court on Friday reserved till 18 December its order on the bail application of former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal in connection with a money laundering case. The court had earlier rejected his plea seeking bail on medical grounds. In 2015, the ED had registered two Enforcement Case Information Reports (ECIRs) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against the senior NCP leader suspecting illegal transactions to the tune of Rs 900 crore in all. The first case by the ED pertains to the Maharashtra Sadan scam and Kalina land allotment case while the second case relates to a housing project at Navi Mumbai wherein its developer had allegedly collected 10 percent of the flat’s total cost as booking amount in 2010 but started no work. [caption id=“attachment_3762679” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Chhagan Bhujbal. AFP[/caption] In June 2015, the Navi Mumbai Police had booked Bhujbal in the case involving an amount of Rs 44 crore. It concerns 2,300 people, who had booked houses in the project ‘Hex World’ promoted by a realty company owned by the Bhujbal family at Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) had earlier registered two FIRs—one in Maharashtra Sadan case and other in Kalina Land allotment case. In November, the Supreme Court had struck down a stringent condition for securing bail by a person accused of money laundering, saying it was “manifestly arbitrary” and “unconstitutional” as it drastically intruded into the fundamental rights of the accused. The apex court said Section 45(1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), which imposes conditions like hearing of a prosecutor before the bail is granted to an accused, was “unreasonable”.