Provisional attachment under PMLA is interlocutory and cannot bind criminal proceedings or determine guilt independently.

Proceedings for provisional attachment under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 are interlocutory and aimed at securing suspected proceeds of crime pending further action. They do not finally determine whether money-laundering or the scheduled offence has been committed, and observations made while confirming or maintaining attachment do not amount to findings on criminal liability. Such observations do not bind the criminal court, operate as res judicata, or prejudice the independent adjudication of the prosecution, which must be decided on the evidence led before the competent court.

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Issues: Whether observations made in proceedings for provisional attachment under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 bind the criminal court or operate as res judicata, and whether such proceedings finally determine guilt for the offence of money-laundering or the scheduled offence.

Analysis: Proceedings under Chapter III of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 are intended to secure and preserve property suspected to be proceeds of crime pending further action. The power of provisional attachment is exercised on the basis of material showing reasonable belief that the property is involved in money-laundering and may be concealed, transferred, or dealt with so as to defeat confiscation. Such proceedings are interlocutory in character and do not finally adjudicate whether an offence under Section 3 has been committed or what punishment, if any, is to follow under Section 4. Observations made while confirming or maintaining attachment are therefore not findings on criminal liability and cannot bind the criminal court.

Conclusion: Observations in attachment proceedings under the Act do not operate as res judicata and do not prejudice or conclude the criminal proceedings, which must be decided independently on the evidence led before the competent court.

Final Conclusion: The attachment proceedings were treated as distinct from the criminal prosecution, and the appeal was not pursued any further.

Ratio Decidendi: Findings recorded in provisional attachment proceedings under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 are interlocutory and binding in subsequent criminal proceedings, which must be decided independently on their own evidence.

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