New Delhi, Apr 15 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to Congress leader and former Punjab Forest Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot in a money laundering case.
The relief came from a Bench comprising Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Vinod Chandran, over a year after Dharamsot was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Dharamsot had initially been booked by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau in 2022 in connection with a bribery case. Following this, the ED registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), leading to his arrest on January 15, 2024.
In May 2024, the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted him interim bail to allow participation in the Lok Sabha election campaign. However, his regular bail plea was rejected by the High Court in September 2024, which described him as the "kingpin of the Forest Scam".
The High Court noted, “Prima facie, it is evident that the petitioner (while holding the office of Forest Minister) collected huge proceeds of crime and laundered the same while projecting it as untainted money through various modes.
Apart from that, the petitioner accumulated disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 6,39,18,292.39 and utilized the same, projecting it as clean money,” the High Court observed.
Following the dismissal, Dharamsot approached the Supreme Court for relief.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, along with advocates Aman Panwar and Sumer Boparai, appeared on behalf of Dharamsot before the apex court.
UNI SNG CS