Kolkata, Sept. 8 -- Prolonged incarceration of an undertrial cannot become "punitive detention", the Calcutta High Court has observed while granting bail to Yogesh Dua, who had been in custody for more than a year in a money-laundering case.
Justice Suvra Ghosh noted that Dua had been in custody since April 4, 2025, while the case remained at the pre-cognisance stage. The court said the possibility of the trial concluding soon was bleak.
The Enforcement Directorate arrested Dua in a money-laundering case arising from a Rs 47 lakh cyber-fraud case. The agency alleged that he was one of the network's principal coordinators and was involved in concealing, transferring, layering and projecting proceeds of crime as untainted property.
Dua was not named in the original cyber-fraud FIR but was later named in the charge sheet. He had secured bail in the scheduled offence.
The court noted that the ED case was based on documentary evidence in its custody, leaving little scope for tampering.
Holding that Article 21 protects an accused's liberty, the court said a constitutional court cannot be restrained by stringent penal provisions from protecting that right. Prolonged pre-trial detention, it said, cannot effectively become punishment.
Dua was granted bail on a Rs 10-lakh bond with two sureties of like amount, half of whom must be local. He must surrender his passport, remain within the trial court's jurisdiction without permission, attend every hearing and not contact witnesses, tamper with evidence or commit any criminal activity.
The court said bail could be cancelled for violation of the conditions and clarified that its observations would not affect the merits of the case.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.