Delhi HC: Taking part in protest no ground to deny PMLA bail

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court has granted bail to an activist of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) in a case of money laundering, rejecting the Enforcement Directorate's demand to deny bail. That the activist, Wahidur Rahman, participated in protests by PFI and its political affiliate Social Democratic Party of India can't be a ground to deny bail under PMLA, the court said. It also noted that ED could show only a transaction of just over Rs 3 lakh being probed while it had claimed the amount was Rs 32 crore.

Incarceration for an indeterminate period would go against "fundamental principles governing personal liberty", the court said. It also pointed out that Rahman's role in the allegations appeared limited.

"As regards the allegation that the petitioner participated in protests organised by PFI against the ban imposed on that organisation, and that he was allegedly involved in an incident of throwing a petrol bomb...those allegations, even if taken at their face value, pertain to a period prior to PFI being declared an 'unlawful association'," Justice Anup J Bhambhani said Friday.

The court added that participation in protest activities in that temporal context, however unseemly the form of protest may be alleged to have been, "cannot at this stage, be treated as a determinative factor for denying bail in a PMLA prosecution, particularly when the primary focus of the allegation is on the financial transactions alleged to have been undertaken by the petitioner". Examining the charge of financial laundering, the court noted that Rahman was not perceived, during the earlier phases of probe and prosecution complaints, as occupying any central or commanding role in the affairs of PFI or SDPI.

It noted that ED could only show a transaction of nearly Rs 3.2 lakh being probed for laundering. "Even if, for the present purposes, these transactions are assumed to be proved in the manner alleged by ED, the proportion of Rs 3.15 lakh vis-a-vis Rs 32.94 crore is so minuscule that this court is of the view that the petitioner cannot, on that basis alone, be characterised as a significant or serious agent of the alleged money-laundering operations of PFI/SDPI," the judge said.

The court also noted that Rahman has been in jail since March 20, 2025 while the case is admittedly still pending at the stage of arguments on charge.