Delhi Court Denies Bail To Accused In Rs 3,269 Cr Shakti Bhog Money Laundering Case

The court said it did not find any reasonable ground to believe that the accused, Ashok Kumar Goel, was not guilty of the alleged offences. It further said that from a prima facie view of the material placed on record and in the light of the gravity of the alleged offences, “it cannot be said either that the applicant is not likely to commit any such offence while on bail.” 

“Considering the enormity of offence alleged against the applicant, period of his incarceration does not make him entitled to grant of regular bail,” Special Judge Naveen Gupta said. He further denied bail on medical ground, saying, “The present plea is also based on the same medical grounds which have already been dealt with by the court earlier.”

“Moreover, the court has already passed direction to the Jail Superintendent in this regard to provide proper physiotherapy as has been advised to him. Accordingly, the bail application of applicant is dismissed,” the judge said.

The accused was arrested in September last year for having an "active involvement in the offence of money laundering in bank fraud of Rs 3,269.42 crore by Shakti Bhog Foods Limited (SBFL)." The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had accused Goel and his co-accused Devki Nandan Garg of "assisting Shakti Bhog Foods Limited and its directors in generation, acquisition, layering and siphoning off its loans funds through shell companies under their disposal.”

"The accused were actively involved in providing fake bills to the company without actual business transactions," the ED had said in the charge sheet. These fake bills, it alleged, "Facilitated inflated stock, turnover and purchase/sale of SBFL to enable it to secure enhanced credit facilities from consortium banks on the basis of this inflated financial reports." 

The money laundering case against Shakti Bhog Foods Limited was based on a CBI FIR that charged it and others for criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal misconduct. The agency had also arrested the chairman and managing director (CMD) of Shakti Bhog Foods Limited K K Sharma and a chartered accountant (CA) named Raman Bhuraria in this case.

The CBI FIR against the company and its promoters came about after the State Bank of India (SBI) registered a complaint against the company. According to the SBI, the directors allegedly falsified accounts and forged documents to siphon off public funds. 

The 24-year-old company, which is into manufacturing and selling wheat, flour, rice, biscuits, cookies, etc., had grown organically as it ventured into food-related diversification over a decade with a turnover growth of Rs 1,411 crore in 2008 to Rs 6,000 crore in 2014, the bank complaint had said.

(With PTI inputs)