In Brief
Rohit Tandon, arrested in December 2016 for money-laundering under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, challenged the High Court's rejection of bail. The case arose from a scheme where he allegedly converted Rs. 31.75 crore in demonetized currency into monetized form through fictitious bank accounts and demand drafts, in conspiracy with a bank manager and chartered accountant, earning commissions. The Supreme Court upheld the bail rejection, finding that Tandon failed to meet the mandatory threshold conditions under Section 45 of the Act: he could not establish reasonable grounds for believing he was not guilty, nor that he would not commit further offences. The Court noted his inexplicable silence on the source of the funds and the formidable case against him based on witness statements and circumstantial evidence. The judgment affirmed that economic offences with deep conspiracies affecting public funds warrant serious treatment in bail matters.
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