India News | Delhi Court Dismisses Bail Plea of Cattle Smuggling Racket Kingpin Enamul Haque

New Delhi, Jun 9 (PTI) A Delhi court on Friday dismissed a default bail plea by Md Enamul Haque, the alleged kingpin of a cross-border cattle smuggling racket, in a money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the illegal trade.

Special Judge Raghubir Singh refused to grant the relief to 44-year-old Haque, saying there was "no justification at all" for moving such an application at such a belated stage, i.e., more than 15 months after his arrest.

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Haque was arrested by the ED in February last year in connection with the money laundering investigation into the smuggling of cattle that takes place across the India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal.

The court also dismissed the regular bail application of another accused in the case, Manish Kothari, chartered accountant of TMC leader Anubrata Mondal.

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Haque had sought default bail on the ground that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had failed to complete the investigation within the stipulated time.

The application claimed that since the ED had filed supplementary complaints (the equivalent of a charge sheet) against the accused and the investigation was still going on after that, it could not be called a complete investigation.

"Supplementary complaints have been filed. These supplementary complaints are supplementary not in the sense that some additional evidence/accusation has been brought on record against the applicant herein, but in the sense of bringing more persons as accused on the basis of the trail of the POC (proceeds of crime) allegedly laundered," the judge said.

Thus, nothing new or additional has been brought on record in respect of the applicant since after the filing of the complaint on April 16, 2022, he said.

"The cognisance of the offence in question was taken vide order dated April 19, 2022. Thus, he can, in no way, take a pretext of incomplete investigation," the judge said, dismissing the application.

Special Public Prosecutor Nitesh Rana, appearing for the ED, told the court during the arguments that Haque acquired a huge amount of wealth from the proceeds of the crime generated out of cross-border activities and violated several laws.

It was alleged that the smuggling of cattle across the India-Bangladesh border was carried out at Haque's instance and he paid bribes to security personnel for facilitation of the trade.

Manish Kothari sought regular bail on the ground that he was no longer required in the case and that no purpose would be served by keeping him in custody.

According to the ED, Kothari helped TMC leader Mondal siphon off money through shell companies.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)