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2023 (5) TMI 1240 - HC - Money LaunderingMoney Laundering - closure of proceedings - petitioner would contend that the ‘B’ report has been filed in favour of the petitioner by the investigating agency and the concerned court has after hearing the complainant accepted the ‘B’ report and closed the proceedings. HELD THAT:- The issue that has fallen for consideration need not detain this Court for long or delve deep into the matter as the three Judge bench of the Apex Court in the case of VIJAY MADANLAL CHOUDHARY & OTHERS VS UNION OF INDIA & OTHERS [2022 (7) TMI 1316 - Supreme Court] has held In view of special mechanism envisaged by the 2002 Act, ECIR cannot be equated with an FIR under the 1973 Code. ECIR is an internal document of the ED and the fact that FIR in respect of scheduled offence has not been recorded does not come in the way of the Authorities referred to in Section 48 to commence inquiry/investigation for initiating “civil action” of “provisional attachment” of property being proceeds of crime. The Apex Court in the afore quoted paragraph has clearly held that if the accused in the predicate case gets acquitted on three circumstances, (1) by an order of acquittal after full blown trial, (2) if the proceedings are quashed by the High Court in exercise of its jurisdiction under Section 482 Cr.PC, or (3) if the accused gets discharged of the offences. If these circumstances are met, the proceedings in the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) cannot be permitted to be continued. The circumstances narrated by the Apex Court (supra) is not the one that is found in the case at hand. The petitioner is neither acquitted after a full blown trial nor discharged from the array of accused and the proceedings against him are not quashed by this Court in exercise of its jurisdiction under Section 482 of the Cr.P.C. The circumstance in which the petitioner is placed though does not form a part of the Apex Court’s finding, the effect is the same. The cause is different, but the effect is to what the Apex Court has held. The closure of the proceedings on acceptance of ‘B’ report and such acceptance becoming final would be closure of proceedings akin to a discharge, as in both the cases no trial is held. Therefore, the petitioner does become entitled to the benefit of the finding of the Apex Court supra and his entitlement leads to obliteration of the proceedings against him as initiated by the Enforcement Directorate - petition allowed.
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