New Delhi, Mar 6:
The Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed the money-laundering case against Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), saying that criminal conspiracy can be a charge under the PMLA only when the conspiracy relates to a crime enlisted as a scheduled offense under the 2000 Act.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and K.V. Viswanathan said, given its November 2023 judgment, that criminal conspiracy, which is punishable under Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), cannot be the only offense for initiating a money laundering probe.
Taking note of the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Pavana Dibbur case, in which another two-judge bench declared that criminal conspiracy can be a charge under the PMLA only when the conspiracy relates to a crime enlisted as a scheduled offense under the 2000 Act, the two-judge bench quashed the case being probed by ED against the congress leader.
The matter relates to a case in which Congress leader Shivakumar and a few others were accused of establishing an extensive network of individuals and places across Bangalore and Delhi to transport and use unaccounted cash.
A case of money laundering was registered against Shivakumar and two others in 2018 after around Rs 7 crores of cash was reported to be seized during Income Tax raids in 2017 from premises in Delhi that were said to be linked to him.
The ED probe followed a spate of income tax raids in 2019 as the agency alleged Shivakumar conspired with Anjaneya Hanumanthaiah, Sunil Kumar Sharma, and some others to evade tax.
Shivakumar was arrested by the ED in September 2019, and his interrogation continued for many days. He remained in jail for nearly two months.
He was eventually granted bail by the Delhi High Court in October 2019, which was also upheld by the Apex Court.
Prior to his arrest, Shivakumar and others had filed a petition before the Karnataka High Court challenging the ED summons issued to them.
In August 2019, Justice Aravind Kumar of the Karnataka High Court, who has since been elevated to the Supreme Court, dismissed these writ petitions and refused to quash ED summons against Shvakumar.
Shivakumar then moved the apex court against the same.
The Supreme Court set aside the High Court order and quashed the proceedings.
Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra appeared for Shivakumar. Senior Counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi and S. Nagamuthu appeared for the other accused.
