After nearly nine months behind bars, former Manjeshwar legislator and IUML leader MC Kamarudheen has walked out of jail with bail in the high-profile Fashion Gold money laundering case. His business associate, TK Pookoya Thangal, accused alongside him, was also granted relief.
The Court made it clear that holding the men indefinitely without trial would be an assault on personal liberty. Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas underlined that the punishment prescribed under the law cannot justify endless incarceration while investigations drag on.
At the heart of the case are allegations by the Enforcement Directorate that crores of rupees collected from public investors through four companies—Fashion Gold International, Fashion Ornaments, Nujoom Gold, and Qamar Fashion Gold—were siphoned off and channelled into properties later shifted into the names of relatives. The probe pegs the suspected diversion at around ₹20 crore.
The accused countered that the investments faltered only because of the economic collapse triggered by the COVID-19 lockdown, stressing that business failure does not equal fraud. Many investors, they pointed out, had even received dividends before the collapse.
The Court agreed that the essential ingredient of cheating—fraudulent intent from the start—was missing from the record. It observed that a contractual failure could not be equated with criminal dishonesty. Importantly, it also held that even if violations under the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act were made out, they would not trigger money laundering provisions since that law is not scheduled under the PMLA.
Granting bail, the Court reminded investigators that extended detention cannot become a tool of punishment in itself.
