NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court on Monday granted bail to M K Faizy, the national president of Social Democratic Party of India, alleged to be the political front of the banned outfit Popular Front of India, in a money laundering case. The court held that stringent provisions of the Enforcement Directorate “cannot be permitted to operate so as to sanction indefinite detention.”
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna granted the relief, saying that rigours of Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, “cannot be permitted to operate.”
Section 45 imposes strict “twin conditions” for granting bail, shifting the burden of proof onto the accused and contradicting the principle of “bail, not jail”. The judge said that in the absence of “concrete evidence”, Faizy’s mere association with the PFI was not enough for the offence.