The Delhi High Court has granted bail to three men accused in a ₹641 crore money laundering case, while criticising the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for its “manifestly arbitrary” approach in the investigation.
Justice Amit Mahajan, in his September 26 order, allowed bail to Vipin Yadav, Ajay, and Rakesh Karwa on the principle of parity, noting that the agency had not arrested another accused with a graver role and had also failed to arraign a person allegedly responsible for arranging mule accounts.
“Having not arrested an accused who appears to have a graver role than the applicants and not even arraigned a person named to have facilitated in arranging the mule accounts, the approach adopted by the respondent department prima facie appears to be manifestly arbitrary and the benefit of parity cannot be denied to the applicants,” the court observed.
The case stems from allegations that the accused duped hundreds of people through fake investment schemes and false job promises, routing illicit funds through multiple accounts. According to the CBI, the men, along with others, managed and controlled 12 bank accounts against whom 16 cyber fraud complaints were registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.
The ED’s prosecution complaint lists 76 witnesses, with an additional 35 named in the supplementary complaint. The court said this made it “highly unlikely” for the trial to conclude swiftly, particularly as Ajay and Vipin were arrested in November 2024, and Rakesh in January 2025.
The judge also underlined that the investigation into the predicate offence, being probed by the CBI, is yet to be concluded. Importantly, the court noted that the role attributed to the three applicants did not appear graver than that of main accused Rohit Aggarwal, from whom the majority of the alleged fraudulent funds originated.
With the bail order, the High Court has signalled a strong rebuke of selective investigation practices while granting relief to the accused pending trial.
