Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002
Section 3—Offence of money laundering—Petition to quash complaint—In absence of there being any case registered for commission of scheduled offence or any case pending enquiry or trial in respect of scheduled offence, authorities under PMLA have no jurisdiction to register ECIR and launch prosecution for offence of money laundering under Sections 3 & 4 of PMLA—Enforcement Directorate is not an authority or investigating agency in any manner superior to CBI, nor is it vested with or conferred the power and jurisdiction to sit in appeal against the investigation made and the conclusion drawn by the later—ED being a parallel investigating agency in respect of crimes under PMLA must accept the investigation carried by another investigating agency and conclusion drawn by the said agency in respect of commission of offences other than the offences under the PMLA—ECIR was registered and prosecution was launched by respondents only on the assumption that Section 120B of RPC in respect of which there was a case registered by the CBI against the petitioner was a scheduled offence—Conspiracy alleged in the charge-sheet filed by the CBI before the CJM is of commission of offence under Section 406 and 409 RPC, which are both non scheduled offences—Enforcement Directorate cannot be allowed to assume jurisdiction of the competent court of criminal jurisdiction and arrived at conclusions different from those arrived by CBI which has investigated the matter and presented the charge-sheet before the CJM—It is necessary that the ED respects the decision of the CBI unless it varies or modified by a competent court of criminal jurisdiction—Complaint, charge-sheet and charges framed by the designated Special Court are quashed—Petition allowed.
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