Money laundering case: Delhi High Court grants bail to accused, cites ED's 'arbitrary approach'

According to the CBI, the accused, along with others, managed, operated and controlled 12 bank accounts, against whom 16 cyber fraud related complaints were received on National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has granted bail to three men in a Rs 641 crore money laundering case and pulled up the ED for acting in a "manifestly arbitrary" manner by not arresting the accused with a graver role.

Justice Amit Mahajan granted bail to accused Vipin Yadav, Ajay and Rakesh Karwa in the case related to allegedly duping and cheating multiple persons through fake investment schemes and false jobs promises on the ground of parity.

"Having not arrested an accused who appears to have a graver role than the applicants and not even arraigned a person named to have facilitated in arranging the mule accounts, the approach adopted by the respondent department prima facie appears to be manifestly arbitrary and the benefit of parity cannot be denied to the applicants," the judge said in its September 26 order.

He further noted that the investigation in the predicate offence, being conducted by the CBI, based on which the present matter was lodged by the ED, has not yet concluded and the present matter is still at the stage of cognisance, even though Ajay and Vipin were arrested on November 29, 2024 and Rakesh was arrested on January 29, 2025.

It is argued that there are 76 witnesses in the first prosecution complaint and 35 witnesses in the supplementary prosecution complaint, whereby, it is highly unlikely that the trial will conclude in an expeditious manner, the judge noted.

He said prima facie, the role attributed to the applicants could not be stated to be graver than that of the main accused Rohit Aggarwal as it was the ED's case that majority of the funds came from him.