By admin 
The Supreme Court today message issued on one Subhash Prasad Yadavs plead challenging the denial of his petition interim/provisional bail in a money laundering case with a view to disputing it Jharkhand Assembly elections.
A bench of Judges Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan passed the order in Yadav’s challenge to a Patna High Court order while verbally directing that evidence in support of the claim that he is contesting the Jharkhand Assembly elections should be shown.
Reportedly, 19 FIRs were initially registered against one Broadson Commodities Pvt Ltd. Thereafter, the Enforcement Directorate registered an ECIR in 2023 based on the FIRs.
The allegation against the suspects was that they were engaged in illegal sand mining without issuing e-transit challans and causing loss of revenue to the government. It was further alleged that the suspect generated and acquired proceeds of crime by committing the alleged criminal offences.
After completing the investigation, ED filed a complaint against Yadav (and two others) and the Special Court took cognizance of the same. Yadav was arrested by ED on March 9, 2024 and is currently lodged in a Patna jail.
Apparently, Yadav has filed a nomination as a candidate for the Jharkhand Assembly elections and filed a bail application in the Patna High Court for allowing him to campaign for elections.
However, the chances of hearing his bail plea before the elections (November 13) proved bleak. As such, Yadav filed a petition in the Supreme Court but it was dismissed.
“It is an admitted fact that the petitioner has already filed a regular bail application before this Court, which is still pending, and knowing this fact, the petitioner has filed the present criminal summons for anticipatory bail for campaigning for the elections .Therefore, it is not right and proper for this bench to pass any order in favor of the petitioner,” said the Supreme Court.
Yadav challenged the dismissal order and approached the Supreme Court.
It is worth adding that Yadav unsuccessfully contested the election from Chatra Lok Sabha constituency in Jharkhand in 2019 on the Rashtriya Janta Dal ticket.
Claims of Yadav
In his petition, Yadav claims that he is keen to contest the Jharkhand Assembly elections from Kodarma constituency. However, pursuant to the impugned order, the High Court has refused to order his release before the elections solely on the ground that his bail plea is already pending even though it is not likely to be heard before the elections.
“In effect, this amounts to less remedy for the petitioner, more so, when there is no chance of the petitioner’s bail application being listed before the completion of the elections.”
Yadav further says that given the nature of PMLA, the possibility of rival parties fabricating money laundering cases cannot be ruled out. As such, he should be granted interim bail to contest elections, in furtherance of democracy.
“Considering the draconian nature of PMLA and the dual condition of bail, against which a review petition is already pending before this fair court, the chances of eliminating competition by rival candidates/parties, by entangling them in fake/fabricated money laundering cases can cannot be excluded.”
In support of his prayers, Yadav relies on the statement he has made Arvind Kejriwal v Enforcement Directoratewhere the Aam Aadmi Party chief was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court itself and not demoted to the bench.
Case Title: SUBHASH PRASAD YADAV vs. THE UNION OF INDIA AND ORS., SLP(Crl) No. 15145/2024