The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that an offence of criminal conspiracy punishable under Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) will be deemed a scheduled offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, only if the alleged conspiracy was directed towards committing an offence specifically included in the schedule of the PMLA.
The Bench of Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Pankaj Mithal passed the orders on a petition challenging the Karnataka High Court verdict, which refused to quash the proceedings in a case pending before Special Judge, Bangalore for the offence of money laundering against her under PMLA.
The case pertained to an FIR in the predicate offence registered under Sections 143, 406, 407, 408, 409, 149 of IPC. The Prevention of Money Laundering Act can be invoked only in relation to “proceeds of crime” arising out of offences which are mentioned in the schedule of the Act.
Though the offences in the present case were not “scheduled offences”, the Enforcement Directorate applied the PMLA by invoking Section 120B IPC(which is a scheduled offence).
It may be recalled that last week, the special bench which was hearing applications to reconsider the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary judgement had orally remarked that ED cannot invoke Section 120B IPC when the criminal conspiracy is not linked to a scheduled offence.
In the present case, a complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 7, 2022, against the former Vice-Chancellor of Alliance University has stirred controversy.
The ED has charged the petitioner under sections 44 and 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), citing offences defined under section 3 read with sections 8(5) and 70, which are punishable under Section 4 of PMLA.
The allegations suggested that during her tenure as VC of Alliance University from 2014 to 2016, the appellant acquainted with Madhukar Angur (Accused no.1), conspired to execute a sham and nominal sale deed without any consideration, involving properties belonging to Alliance University.
It was further claimed that she facilitated Accused No. 1 in using her bank accounts to conceal money syphoned from the university.Taking cognizance of the allegations, the Special Judge proceeded with the case.
In response, the petitioner approached the Karnataka High Court, seeking to quash the proceedings under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
However, the High Court, relying on the judgement in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary v. Union of India & Ors., emphasised that the phrase used by the Apex Court is ‘any person’ and not ‘any accused’.
The post Criminal conspiracy under Section 120-B of IPC deemed scheduled offence only if offence included in PMLA schedule: Supreme Court appeared first on India Legal.