Shimla: (HD News); In an important matter for the state of Himachal Pradesh and first of its kind here, the court of Special Judge PMLA, Shimla designated under the Prevention of Money laundering act 2002 cum Session judge Shimla, today framed charges against all the accused persons in the ED Complaint case.
It is pertinent to mention here that this is first case in which the charges have been framed by any PMLA Court in the state of Himachal Pradesh.
The criminal complaint in the matter was filed by the Assistant Director Directorate of Enforcement, sub zonal Office, Shimla against Deep RamThakur, Usha Devi, Ajay Thakur, Satya Devi and Meher Singh.
It may be recollected that few years back an FIR was registered by the Himachal Pradesh Police, Police Station Shimla West on 25th of March 2016 bearing no. 83 of 2016 under sections 18, 20 and 29 of NDPS act , 1985 against Sri Aman Thakur and Shri Vipin Sharma after recovering 10 gram of charas and 10 gram of opium from their possession.
In further proceedings in this matter police had recovered huge quantity of Drugs, weighing up to 8 kg of opium and 8 kg gram of charas from the House Vijay Nivas, Totu, Shimla belonging to Deep Ram Thakur and Usha Devi. One Mehar Singh was also arrested who used to deliver opium and Charas to Deep Ram Thakur on demand. From his custody also about 1 kg 282 grams opium was also recovered.
The investigation conducted by the police culminated into a Police Challan upon which a Session Trial was conducted before the Session judge Shimla .
The court of the session judge Shimla in the case titled as State of Himachal Pradesh versus Deep Ram and others, convicted Deep Ram Thakur , Usha Devi and Meher Singh with rigorous imprisonment ranging from 20 years to 10 years and it also imposed heavy fine on these accused persons.
The department of enforcement on the basis of the four set FIR took up case for investigation under the provisions of money laundering act 2002 .Deep Ram and Usha Devi from whose residence more than commercial quantity of narcotics, jewellery, cash, Cheque, cheque books in the name of Deep Ram had been recovered by ED in its investigation were booked as accused along with other accused persons. Later a complaint under under Section 44 and 45 of the Prevention of Money laundering act 2002 was filed for commission of offences of money laundering as defined under section 3 and punishable under Section 4 of the Money laundering Act. Deep Ram, Usha Devi, Ajay Thakur, Satya Devi and Mehar Singh were made accused in this ED complaint. Ajay Thakur happens to be the son of Deep Ram
Today on 01 November 2022 in the said complaint filed by the Directorate of enforcement through its Assistant director, Shri Bhupesh Sharma Special Judge PMLA Court Shimla under the money laundering act, after going through all the conclusions of ED investigations recorded in the complaint, the statement of witnesses and other documents annexed thereto, with the complaint and upon hearing respective advocates and the Special Public Prosecutor Sh Navlesh Verma, it ordered framing of charges against all these 5 accused persons, under section 3 of the money laundering act punishable under Section 4 of the act . Shri Aman Mor Asstt Director ED and Shri Navlesh Verma represented the ED Department in the case as Special Public Prosecutor.