Home Case Index All Cases Money Laundering Money Laundering + HC Money Laundering - 2023 (4) TMI HC This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2023 (4) TMI 1315 - DELHI HIGH COURTMoney Laundering - predicate/scheduled offence - illegal racket of kidney transplantation - offences including the offences punishable under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Sections 18, 19 and 20 of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994 - whether acquittal of the accused i.e., Jeevan Kumar from the predicate offence and quashing of criminal proceedings mentioned above qua the appellant-Rajiv Channa, shall also lead to the cessation of the attachment proceedings? - HELD THAT:- For the commission of an offence of money laundering, the essential preconditions which emerge from the aforesaid provisions are that firstly, it requires an involvement in any process or activity connected with the proceeds of crime; and secondly, projection of the same as untainted property. The proceeds of crime allude to any property derived or obtained, directly or indirectly, by any person as a result of criminal activity relating to a scheduled offence. It may also include the value of any such property or in cases where such property is taken or held outside the country, then the property equivalent in value held within the country or abroad. The Explanation to Section 2(1)(u) of PMLA, 2002 further clarifies that the proceeds of crime would include property not only derived or obtained from the scheduled offence but also any property which may directly or indirectly be derived or obtained as a consequence of any criminal activity pertaining to the scheduled offence. In Nik Nish Retail Ltd. v. Assistant Director, Enforcement Directorate [2022 (11) TMI 1280 - CALCUTTA HIGH COURT], the Calcutta High Court, while dealing with a case where the FIR in respect of the predicate offence was quashed on the basis of settlement has held that the proceedings initiated under PMLA, 2002 provisions cannot stand in isolation in the absence of any scheduled offence. This Court, in the case of Prakash Industries Ltd. v. Directorate of Enforecement [2022 (7) TMI 877 - DELHI HIGH COURT], has taken a view that once it is found that a criminal offence does not stand evidenced, the question of any property being derived or obtained therefrom or its confiscation or attachment would not arise at all. A bare perusal of the facts of the present case would show that the Trial Court had already acquitted the appellant-Jeevan Kumar of all the charges framed against him vide judgment dated 22.03.2013 and the same has remained unchallenged by the respondent. Therefore, his acquittal in the scheduled offence breaks the entire chain leading to the other appellants. Moreover, this Court, vide judgment dated 15.01.2024, had quashed the ECIR bearing no. ECIR/07/DZ/2008 alongwith all the consequential proceedings arising therefrom, and the charge framed qua the appellant-Rajiv Channa vide order dated 24.04.2012. Thus, a necessary corollary would be that all the proceedings in furtherance of prosecution, including attachment, would also fall and are therefore, liable to be quashed. The attachment proceedings in the present case are unsustainable as the appellants cannot be said to be involved in any activity connected with the proceeds of crime - Appeal disposed off.
|