bhopal the supreme court has cancelled anticipatory bail granted by the telangana high court to former chief secretary of madhya pradesh m gopal reddy while hearing on appeal made by the enforcement directorate ed in an alleged money laundering caseduring initial arguments additional solicitor general appearing for the ed had submitted money laundering activities have a crippling effect on the public exchequer and the economy of the country and discourage thousands of corporations from investing their money in india he had further argued that offences under the prevention of money laundering act are cognisable and nonbailable and therefore the act imposes stringent conditions for bail under section 45after hearing arguments a bench of justices m r shah and c t ravikumar allowed eds appeal on friday and cancelled the anticipatory bail of m gopal reddyit can be seen that the high court has not at all considered the nature of allegations and the seriousness of the offences alleged against respondent no 1 gopal reddy as per the catena of decision of this court more particularly observed in the case of p chidambaram supra in case of economic offences which are having an impact on the society the court must be very slow in exercising the discretion under section 438 of crpc supreme court ruled considering the overall facts and circumstances of the case and the reasoning given by the high court and as observed hereinabove the rigour of section 45 of the act 2002 shall be applicable even with respect to the application under section 438 crpc and therefore the impugned judgment and order passed by the high court granting anticipatory bail to respondent no 1 herein in connection with f no ecirhyzo362020 dated december 15 2020 is unsustainable says the orderconsequently the impugned judgment and order passed by the high court granting anticipatory bail to respondent no 1 is hereby quashed and set aside respondent no 1 be dealt with in accordance with law while allowing eds appeal supreme court also ruled that if gopal reddy is arrested and files any regular bail application the same be considered in accordance with law and on its own merits and considering the material collected during enquiryinvestigation of the case ed had stated that those involved in the operation were people of means with deeprooted connections in the political executive as well as the bureaucracy and grant of bail would hamper the investigation thus delaying the process of unearthing the financial fraud and tracing the proceeds of the crimethe backgrounded had initiated investigations into the said scam based on an fir registered by the madhya pradesh economics wing eow against seven companies director of one of the companies named max mantena and associated individuals were arrested and sent to jail action against remaining companies is yet to be taken a trial court in bhopal had recently acquitted all accused named in the case following insufficient evidence and the probe agency is now trying to collect evidence and connect the dots it is