New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India on Monday granted bail to an accused in a significant money-laundering case who allegedly posed as a close aide to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other union ministers to extort money. A two-judge bench consisting of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice N Kotiswar Singh set aside a February 5 order by the Allahabad High Court that had previously denied bail to the petitioner, Mohammad Kashif. The apex court factored in his nearly three-year period of incarceration when rendering its decision.
The top court granted relief after the accused delivered a formal undertaking promising not to utilize the names of high constitutional or government functionaries going forward. The bench strictly instructed Kashif to cooperate fully with the ongoing trial. The court also clarified that the Enforcement Directorate would be at liberty to seek an immediate cancellation of his bail should he fail to comply with the directives or violate his legal undertaking.
The federal agency’s investigation, launched on April 19, 2023, originated from an initial case of cheating and forgery registered at the Gautam Budh Nagar police station in Uttar Pradesh. Investigators alleged that Kashif extorted substantial sums of money from individuals by promising to clear their pending tasks across various government departments under the guise of being an influential associate of top political leaders. To execute the deception, he allegedly posted morphed and edited photographs of himself with the Prime Minister and senior ministers on his personal Instagram and Facebook accounts to accumulate financial benefits.
The probe further indicated that Kashif managed to leverage this artificial influence to obtain multiple work contracts from the Government of Rajasthan and other public departments. He was initially intercepted by the Noida police while travelling in a luxury vehicle, where authorities seized three mobile phones. A deeper examination of his social media accounts and devices revealed several fabricated documents, including forged invitation cards printed under his name for the Prime Minister’s high-profile oath-taking ceremony in May 2019, along with a fake invitation to an exclusive official lunch.
In his defence, Kashif’s counsel contended that their client had already secured bail for the underlying predicate offence and noted that the money-laundering trial had suffered extensive delays. He had remained in continuous custody since May 2023. Conversely, the anti-money laundering agency strongly contested the bail application, relying heavily on the recovery of over 1.10 crore rupees during searches at properties linked to the accused. The prosecution successfully argued before lower courts that the seized capital directly constituted the proceeds of crime derived from the extortion scheme.
