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2021 (1) TMI 1319 - MADRAS HIGH COURTMoney Laundering - scheduled offences - recording of ECIR as a prosecution exhibit - objection by the defence on the ground that the said document was not the original but a photocopy and insisted on marking of the original - HELD THAT:- Suo motu FIRs are normally registered by the police in white-collar offences where the date and timings in the FIR have least significance. The Enforcement Directorate is not conducting an investigation under Chapter XII of the Cr.P.C., but, on the strength of the powers of search, seizure, recording of statements and arrest, conferred on them by various provisions of the PML Act - A person cannot be convicted or acquitted based on the entries in the ECIR form, because, an offence under the PML Act has to be proved by examining witnesses and proving documents in order to establish that the accused had involved himself in a criminal activity, acquired assets and had projected the proceeds of the crime as untainted property. In this scheme of things, the ECIR document really has no significance. The Special Public Prosecutor placed strong reliance on Section 294 Cr.P.C. to justify his request to the trial Court for marking an office copy of the ECIR form - The Special Public Prosecutor could have obtained the original of the ECIR form from the Adjudicating Authority in New Delhi either by sending a letter to him or filing a petition under Section 91 Cr.P.C. Instead of guiding the Court properly, he has relied upon "a non-existent provision', viz. Section 300 C.R.P." In the worst scenario, where, the ECIR form itself is not marked during trial, that by itself, will not vitiate the trial, for the simple reason that, the objective satisfaction arrived at and recorded in the ECIR form by the Enforcement Officer that an investigation under the PML Act has to be commenced based on the knowledge acquired by him that the police have registered a case for a 'schedule offence', can, by no stretch of imagination, either lead to the proof of guilt or otherwise of the person prosecuted under the PML Act. Conviction or acquittal of an accused under the PML Act, can be based only on substantive evidence and not on the mere objective satisfaction arrived at and recorded by the Enforcement Officer in the ECIR form - an ECIR form is only an opinion of the Enforcement Officer based on the case registered for a 'schedule offence' that an investigation under the PML Act should be commenced. The melancholic part in criminal justice system is that, it is often found one blind leading another and the two finally ending up in a cul-de-sac. The impugned order is set aside and the trial Court is directed to permit the prosecution to mark the copy of the ECIR form recording the objections of the defence - this criminal revision is allowed.
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