December 23rd 2024.
According to sources, the Enforcement Directorate has recently issued new guidelines to its officials regarding the registration of money laundering cases. They have been advised to not solely rely on the provision of "criminal conspiracy" while filing a case, but to also include other sections such as 66 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). This is to ensure that the case can withstand the scrutiny of the court.
This decision was prompted by recent court rulings, including one by the Supreme Court, which stated that section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) cannot be considered as a standalone "predicate offence" for registering a criminal case under the PMLA. The court further emphasized that a "scheduled offence" under the PMLA must also be included in the application.
In light of these judgements, the Enforcement Directorate has directed its investigators to make use of section 66 of the PMLA. This section allows the ED to share information about an offence with a predicate agency, such as the police or Customs, in order to file a fresh FIR or complaint. Based on this, the ED can then initiate a money laundering case.
It has been observed that in some cases, the courts have quashed ED FIRs or cases due to the absence of a "scheduled offence" under the PMLA. In order to avoid this, the officials have been instructed to apply other sections of the law listed in the schedule of the PMLA in their ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report).
The ED's cases against Karnataka's deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar and retired Chhattisgarh IAS officer Anil Tuteja, among others, have been dismissed by the courts on this basis. However, in the Chhattisgarh case, the ED used its powers under section 66 of the PMLA and shared fresh evidence with the state police's economic offences wing. As a result, a new FIR was filed against Tuteja and others, and the ED was able to initiate a new money laundering case based on this complaint.
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