Delhi HC grants bail to SDPI chief in money laundering case

The Delhi High Court on Monday granted bail to Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) national president M.K. Faizy in a case of alleged money laundering related to the proscribed outfit Popular Front of India (PFI).

Justice Neena Krishna Bansal noted that Mr. Faizy has been in jail since March 3, 2025, i.e. for more than 11 months. “Continued incarceration without commencement and foreseeable completion of trial will amount to pre-trial punishment, which is impermissible under Article 21,” the judge said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said Mr. Faizy was a founding member of the PFI and held senior positions in the organisation at the national level. The agency said that at the time the PFI was declared unlawful by the Government of India on September 28, 2022, he remained an active member. The ED said the PFI exercised control over and provided funding to the SDPI, with Mr. Faizy serving as a crucial connection point in his dual role as SDPI National President while being a PFI member.

The ED further stated that Mr. Faizy knowingly participated in laundering money, concealing and using illicit funds to finance riots, terrorist training, and antinational activities.

On the other hand, it was vehemently argued by Mr. Faizy that when the PFI along with its associated organisations and affiliates was declared unlawful in 2022, anyone connected with the PFI was made part of that order, but significantly, the SDPI was neither declared unlawful nor included in the list of banned organisations.

The court said, “the applicant may have at one point of time be a founding member of the PFI since 2015 and remained a member till 2018, but that or that he may be a national president of the SDPI, but these allegations in itself are not enough to prima facie make out a case of laundering the proceeds of crime”.

“Mere association of the applicant with an organisation or holding a position in an organisation, without specific and concrete evidence of personal involvement in money laundering activities, cannot constitute an offence under Section 3 of the PMLA,” the court said, grating bail.

The court ordered that Mr. Faizy should not leave the country without the permission of the court and if he had a passport, he should surrender the same to the trial court.