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5. The Anti Corruption Bureau (in short 'ACB') after registration of FIR commenced investigation and filed charge-sheet on 04.11.2015 against the accused persons vide charge-sheet No.276/2015 for offences punishable under Sections 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13(1)(a)(c)(d), 13(2) & 14 of Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 120-B and 409 IPC.

6. The ACB in the charge-sheet found that the accused Sanjay Sethi was engaged in the business of mining and he was a tout of the Department of Mines and used to identify businessmen engaged in the mining business anywhere in the State of Rajasthan, with the help of officers of the Department of Mines. The accused Sanjay Sethi, because of his close association with the co-accused Dr. Ashok Singhvi, the then Principal Secretary, Department of Mines, used to get instructions to close the mines of the businessmen for one or another reason and thereafter he used to contact the businessmen and after striking out the deal with the officers of the Department of Mines, got their mines reopened while imposing minor penalty in collusion with the officers of the Department of Mines and in lieu of the said transaction, he used to collect huge amount of money from the businessmen.

(6 of 34) [CRLR-273/2019]

7. The ACB also found, after keeping the cell phone of Sanjay Sethi on surveillance, that six mines of co-accused Mohd. Sher Khan were closed on the ground of unsafe mining and other irregularities, only for the purpose of extracting illegal gratification from him for the official functionaries of the Department of Mines. It was further revealed to the ACB that in order to get the mines reopened, Mohd. Sher Khan contacted Sanjay Sethi and Pankaj Gehlot, through their Charted Accountant Shyam Sundar Singhvi for the purpose of reopening of mines. It was found by the ACB that the bribe amount was fixed to the tune of Rs.2.50 Crores and it was alleged that Sanjay Sethi had informed Dr. Ashok Singhvi that deal was finalized at Rs.1.25 Crores and out of which Rs.1 Crore was for Dr. Ashok Singhvi and Rs.25 Lakhs was for others and Dr. Ashok Singhvi had given his consent for the said deal. It was further found by the ACB that Rs.2.60 crores was withdrawn from different bank accounts and Mohd. Rashid Sheikh was to handover the amount of Rs.2.55 crores and in pursuance thereof Rs.2.55 crores were handed over by Shyam Sunder Singhvi to Sanjay Sethi and his associate Dheerendra Singh @ Chintu on 16.09.2015. The ACB team visited the office of Shyam Sunder Singhvi and seized the amount of Rs.2.50 crores from Sanjay Sethi and Dheerendra Singh and Rs.5 lakhs was kept with Shyam Sunder Singhvi, as commission, paid to Shyam Sunder in the deal.

8. The Directorate of Enforcement, after the charge-sheet being filed by the ACB, registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) on 30.10.2015 against eight accused persons i.e. Sanjay Sethi, Dr. Ashok Singhvi, Pankaj Gehlot, Pushkar Raj Ameta, Shyam Sunder Singhvi, Mohd. Rashid Sheikh, Dheerendra Singh @ Chintu and Tamanna Begum on the allegations of money (7 of 34) [CRLR-273/2019] laundering under Sections 3 & 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 which involved 'proceeds of crime' amounting to Rs.2.55 Crores, as the offences punishable under Sections 120-B IPC and Sections 7, 8, 9, 10 & 13 of Prevention of Corruption Act, were specified under Paragraph-1 & Paragraph-8 respectively of Part-A of the scheduled offences under PMLA, 2002.

Counsel argued that the entire case of the Enforcement Directorate is founded on the version given out by the ACB in their charge-sheet for the scheduled offence and the charge- sheet submitted by the ACB does not make out a case under Section 3 of the PMLA, 2002. The facts of the case did not reflect that even the illegal gratification was accepted or obtained by any of the public servants, much less after obtaining the same, they had projected or claimed the same to be untainted property.