Under Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering

Solution

Section 45 of the PMLA, 2002 imposes extremely stringent bail conditions popularly known as the "Twin Conditions" which the court must be satisfied about before granting bail to any person accused of money laundering. The first condition is that the court must have reasonable grounds to believe that the accused is not guilty of the offence an unusual reversal of the normal presumption where it is the prosecution that must prove guilt. The second condition is that the court must believe the accused is not likely to commit any offence while on bail. These conditions make PMLA a non-bailable offence in practical terms, significantly restricting an accused's right to pre-trial liberty. The Supreme Court in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary v. Union of India (2022) upheld the constitutional validity of these twin conditions, while also clarifying that they must be applied consistent with Article 21 of the Constitution. Money laundering under Section 3 of PMLA carries a minimum of 3 years and maximum of 7 years of rigorous imprisonment extendable to 10 years in cases connected with scheduled offences under the NDPS Act, 1985.