No predicate offence: Supreme Court quashes money laundering case in Chhattisgarh liquor scam

The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the money laundering case against a Chhattisgarh bureaucrat and the kin of the Raipur mayor in connection with the State's liquor policy scam case..A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said that there was no predicate offence in this case and hence, money laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) could not have been registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). A predicate offence is a crime which is a component of larger crime and an offence like money laundering begins with an offence under the Indian Penal Code, which is considered the predicate offence.The Court relied on its recent judgment that held that the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cannot be mechanically invoked by citing Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code."In this case, no scheduled offence is made out the basis of the complaint as the offences relied upon therein are not scheduled offences. Therefore, there cannot be any proceeds of crime. Hence, there cannot be an offence under Section 3 of the PMLA," the bench observed..The bench had on March 18 this year observed that the ED's complaint in the matter was not based on any predicate/scheduled offence.The bench was hearing the writ petitions filed by IAS officer Anil Tuteja, his son Yash Tuteja, Karishma Dhebar, Anwar Dhebar, Arun Pati Tripathi and Siddharth Singhania.Anwar Dhebar is the brother of Raipur mayor Aijaz Dhebar, and Karishma Debhar is the wife of the former.The case arises out of the alleged ₹2,000 crore liquor syndicate racket in the State during the Chief Ministership of Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel.The top court had in July last year granted interim protection from arrest to the accused.The bench today eventually found that no case of money laundering was made out in the absence of proceeds of crime arising out a predicate offence."If there is no predicate offence, there are no proceeds of crime. Therefore, there cannot be money laundering," Justice Oka had remarked on April 5 while hearing the case..Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared for the accused. Additional Solicitor General SV Raju appeared for the Enforcement Directorate (ED)..[Read judgment]