2. The genesis of the FIR lies in a disclosure made by the Enforcement
Directorate vide letter dated 11.07.2023 under Section 66 of the Prevention
of Money Laundering Act in ECIR No. 11/2022, upon which the State
agency initiated the present criminal proceedings. The applicant was
initially not an accused in the early stages of investigation. Subsequently,
the applicant came to be named only in the 6th supplementary charge-
sheet filed on 24.11.2025, wherein the prosecution has arrayed as many
as 117 accused persons and cited more than 1110 witnesses, relying upon
over 990documents.
3. The prosecution case against the present applicant rests primarily
on selectively extracted WhatsApp chats allegedly exchanged between
certain co-accused persons, namely Anwar Dewar, Anil Tuteja,
Soumya Chaurasiya and Vikash Agrawal. Significantly, there is no direct
communication alleged between the present applicant and the said co-
accused persons, and the only assertion made is that the applicant was
acquainted with co-accused Anwar Dewar. It is further alleged that
certain code words appearing in the chats, such as the letters “S.C.”
allegedly referring to Soumya Chaurasiya and the expression “files”
allegedly representing monetary transactions, have been interpreted by the
investigating agency as indicating illegal gratification. However, no
independent material has been placed on record to establish the
authenticity, meaning, or context of such alleged code words, and the
entire inference is based solely on the interpretation of the investigating
agency.
