PMLA: SC grants bail to ex-Noida Authority chief engineer

The Supreme Court today granted bail to former Noida Authority chief engineer Yadav Singh who has been chargesheeted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case.
A bench headed by Justice S A Bobde granted the relief to Singh after his counsel said that the accused was entitled to statutory bail since the charge sheet was not filed by ED within the stipulated period from the date of his arrest.
The counsel, appearing for the ED, opposed the bail plea and argued that the charge sheet was filed within the stipulated period.
Though bail has been granted to Singh in the ED case, he will remain in jail as there were several other corruption cases against him.

Singh has approached the apex court challenging the order passed by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court denying him bail in the matter.
In his plea before the Allahabad High Court, he had contended that he was technically entitled to bail since the chargesheet was not submitted by the probe agency within the statutory period.

The high court had dismissed his petition, considering the ED's submission that the chargesheet was filed on time.
In 2015, the ED had slapped money laundering charges against Singh, who was engineer-in-chief of the Noida Authority, Greater Noida Authority and Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority, on the basis of an FIR lodged by the CBI.

Earlier, the Income Tax department had said the raid in November 2014 had revealed that Singh's assets were hugely disproportionate to his income, following which he was suspended by the then Uttar Pradesh government.
In July 2015, the Allahabad High Court had directed the CBI to investigate the case stating that the allegations were most serious.