CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has dismissed the bail application of an accused in a money laundering case linked to an alleged narcotics racket after finding that he had suppressed the fact that he had earlier challenged the rejection of bail before the Supreme Court.
Justice Gourishankar Satapathy declined to entertain the bail plea of Rajanikanta Pattnaik and imposed a cost of Rs 20,000 on him for withholding material facts from the court.
Justice Satapathy observed that although Pattnaik had disclosed that his earlier bail application before the High Court had been rejected on February 16, 2024, he did not mention that he had subsequently approached the Supreme Court by filing a Special Leave Petition, which was later dismissed as withdrawn.
Holding that such suppression struck at the fairness expected from a litigant seeking discretionary relief, the judge invoked the legal maxim, “Suppressio veri, expressio falsi”-meaning suppression of truth is equivalent to expression of falsehood.
The High Court directed Pattnaik to deposit Rs 20,000 with the Juvenile Justice Fund of the Odisha State Legal Services Authority in Cuttack within four weeks. It clarified that he would be at liberty to file a fresh bail application only after depositing the cost and approaching the court with “clean hands”.
Pattnaik was arrested on September 7, 2023 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case arising out of an alleged narcotics racket. Earlier, while rejecting his bail plea on February 16, 2024, the court had held that the ED had collected sufficient prima facie material indicating that his movable and immovable properties were proceeds of crime.
The prosecution case originates from a raid conducted by Khallikote police in Ganjam district in October 2021, during which they allegedly recovered 34.094 kg of ganja, 10.010 kg of opium, Rs 75.09 lakh in cash, besides gold and silver articles from the accused’s premises.