Despite the fact that the predicate offence against the accused was dropped, a special court in Mumbai upheld its interim order to free the 2 people who were being tried for allegedly participating in a money laundering case.
The two persons were arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and on Wednesday, special judge M G Deshpande ruled that ‘both applications are allowed’ and upheld an earlier temporary release order for them. He explained that the PMLA’s legal process cannot proceed without a predicate offence.
The two men were criminally charged, and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had aggressively opposed both the interim relief and the discharge plea of the two men, claiming that this would set a precedent and many cases the agency was investigating would suffer a setback.
In accordance with the PMLA’s rules, the ED must have a prior FIR (predicate crime) before taking any action against a person participating in the process or activity. The accused persons in this case cited a Supreme Court decision on July 27 that stated there could not be a separate money-laundering case brought against someone who had been found not guilty of the scheduled offence brought against them.
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