Kolkata, Feb 13 A court in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district has exonerated an expert in alternative therapy of cancer from the charges of making false claims over his profession.
Following the exoneration, a PMLA court has also acquitted Aradeep Chatterjee of the money laundering charges that were brought by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) based on the criminal case initiated by the state police in June 2017.
His homoeopathic doctor father, Ashim Kumar Chatterjee, who had also been arrested, was honourably discharged of the charges of assisting him.
Aradeep was apprehended in June 2017 on the accusation that he had been unlawfully earning money by treating cancer patients and was booked under various charges, including cheating by impersonation, forgery, criminal conspiracy and abetment.
The police had also arrested his father in August of that year for allegedly extending unlawful assistance to his son.
Based on the charge sheets of the police cases, the ED lodged a case in 2017, following which their properties and bank accounts were attached, and a prosecution complaint was lodged in the special ED court at Bichar Bhavan under various provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), Aradeep's lawyers said.
Aradeep was released on bail in January 2018, and his father was also granted bail by a competent court thereafter.
Maintaining that all the charges levelled against Aradeep and his father by the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate and the ED were "false, motivated and groundless", one of their lawyers said, "After prolonged and rigorous judicial trials, they were both honourably acquitted from all the police cases by the Fast Track-I Court at Barasat, West Bengal."
Passing the judgment, the additional sessions judge had observed that the "prosecution has totally failed to prove the case beyond minimum reasonable doubt and as such, I find no alternative but to form my opinion that the accused persons deserve to be acquitted".
The lawyers claimed that the two have also been honourably discharged from the money laundering case by the Special ED Court at Bichar Bhawan, Kolkata.
"Consequently, the savings of Aradeep Chatterjee, which had been attached by the ED and the police as proceeds of crime, were released and returned to him along with the accrued interest," one of Aradeep's lawyers added.
The special court, discharging Aradeep and his father of the money laundering charges, observed, "The proposed charge against the accused persons appears to be groundless as a result of the order of acquittal passed in the scheduled offence by a competent court."
Expressing his faith in the judiciary, Aradeep said that his exoneration establishes that he obeyed all the laws of the land.
"My vindication proves that my country has a very strong and progressive Constitution which safeguards our rights and never denies justice," he said.
