Kerala HC denies bail to two accused in ED case connected with KUNL 'fraud'

Kochi, Mar 13 (PTI) The Kerala High Court on Thursday dismissed the bail pleas of two persons facing money laundering charges in connection with an alleged multi-crore fraud by the Kannur Urban Nidhi Limited (KUNL).

Justice P V Kunhikrishnan denied bail to Antony Sunny and Gafoor K M who are the first and third accused in a money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the alleged fraud.

The High Court said that based on the materials placed before it by the ED, it cannot be said that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accused are not guilty and that they are not likely to commit any offences.

"In such circumstances, I am not in a position to accept the contentions (of the accused) at this stage. Therefore, there is no merit in these bail applications," Justice Kunhikrishnan said and dismissed their bail pleas.

According to the prosecution, Sunny and Gafoor were the promoters of Kannur Urban Nidhi Limited (KUNL), which was offering 12 to 12.5 per cent interest on fixed deposits and accepted deposits from several investors.

The ED claimed that the accused diverted those funds for the establishment and running of another company by the name, 'Anytime Money Pvt. Ltd.' (ATM) and to the personal accounts of the petitioners and other accused.

In this manner, all the accused in the case embezzled around Rs 40 crore by cheating the investors, the agency told the court.

Rejecting the accusations, the two accused claimed that they were entitled to statutory bail as the probe was not completed within the stipulated period and there was no evidence to implicate them in the case.

The court rejected the contentions saying the accused were not entitled to bail by default as the agency had completed the probe on time.

It also said that there were materials against the two accused which could not be neglected.

"Based on the materials mentioned above, I am not in a position to say that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accused are not guilty and that they are not likely to commit any offences," Justice Kunhikrishnan said.

Sunny had claimed that he was neither a shareholder in KUNL nor a director in that company and had only sold some trucks to Gafoor for which he had received payment.

The court refused to accept the contention, saying that if that was the case then there would be "agreements and other documents" in connection with the sale, but none of those were produced to substantiate the claims of the accused.

"Accordingly, these bail applications are dismissed," it said.

The ED case, filed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), was registered after the agency took cognisance of as many as 150 Kerala Police and economic offences wing (EOW) FIRs against the promoters and directors including Gafoor, Shaukat Ali, Anthony S and a woman identified as Jasheena. PTI HMP HMP ROH