Patna High Court stays money laundering case after accused says liquor prohibition law not Scheduled Offence under PMLA

The Patna High Court recently stayed the money laundering case against an accused person booked by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for alleged supply of liquor in Bihar in violation of the Bihar Excise Prohibition Act, 2016 [Sunil Bhardwaj @ Sunil Kumar v. Deputy Director, Directorate Of Enforcement]..Justice Satyavrat Verma asked the ED to file its reply to the petition seeking quashing of the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) registered by the ED in 2022.The petitioner Sunil Bhardwaj moved the Court to quash of the money laundering case on the ground that ECIR could not have been registered by the ED as the offence punishable under the Bihar Excise Prohibition Act is not mentioned in the schedule of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)..The counsel representing the petitioner then submitted that the issue involved in the case is whether the ED by taking recourse to section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code can bring any offence within the ambit of the PMLA.In this context, the counsel however referred to Supreme Court’s recent verdict in Pavana Dibbur vs Directorate of Enforcement to contend that the offence under Section 120B of the IPC becomes a PMLA offence only if the conspiracy is to commit an offence which is specifically included in the schedule under IPC.“Any offence committed under the Bihar Excise Prohibition Act, 2016 would not come within the purview of the ED as offence committed under Bihar Excise Prohibition Act, 2016 is not a scheduled offence,” the Court was told..The counsel representing the ED sought six weeks time for filing a counter affidavit. While allowing the request, the Court passed the following direction,“The counter affidavit shall give parawise reply of the pleadings made in the quashing application and shall also reply the submission made by the learned counsel for the petitioner based on the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court as recorded herein above.”The Court will hear the matter next on April 29. While staying further proceedings in the ECIR, the Court clarified that the stay is only with respect to the petitioner. Advocate Anshumaan Sahni assisted by advocates Lokesh Kumar Singh and Sukant Vikram appeared for the petitioner..[Read Order]