Family-linked property purchases using fabricated loan agreements and benami-style arrangements held to be crime proceeds; attachment upheld, appeal d...
Proceedings under s.3 read with s.70 PMLA were challenged as without jurisdiction where the ECIR and all consequential attachment/freezing actions were founded solely on two predicate FIRs in which closure reports for "mistake of fact" had been accepted by the Magistrate. Since money-laundering is dependent on property derived from criminal activity relating to a scheduled offence, acceptance of the final reports meant there was, at that stage, no subsisting scheduled offence and the ED could not hold a bona fide "reason to believe" the property was "proceeds of crime"; suspicion or vague information was insufficient. The 2019 Explanation to s.2(1)(u) was held clarificatory and did not expand "proceeds of crime" beyond a scheduled offence nexus. Petition allowed. - HC
Proceedings under s.3 read with s.70 PMLA were challenged as without jurisdiction where the ECIR and all consequential attachment/freezing actions were founded solely on two predicate FIRs in which closure reports for "mistake of fact" had been accepted by the Magistrate. Since money-laundering is dependent on property derived from criminal activity relating to a scheduled offence, acceptance of the final reports meant there was, at that stage, no subsisting scheduled offence and the ED could not hold a bona fide "reason to believe" the property was "proceeds of crime"; suspicion or vague information was insufficient. The 2019 Explanation to s.2(1)(u) was held clarificatory and did not expand "proceeds of crime" beyond a scheduled offence nexus. Petition allowed. - HC
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