14 years later, trial complete in only one of 102 money-laundering cases

 

Special PMLA judge, while granting bail to Raut, says ED is fast in registering cases and making arrests, but slow in completing trial Back in 2008, the first case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002 was brought before the city sessions court for trial

Special PMLA judge, while granting bail to Raut, says ED is fast in registering cases and making arrests, but slow in completing trial

Back in 2008, the first case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002 was brought before the city sessions court for trial. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had booked a private company and its directors based on an offence registered by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). Later, the agency filed a prosecution complaint, also known as chargesheet.

Fourteen years have passed since then, but the special court is yet to frame charges against the accused while the discharge pleas are pending.

Interestingly, of the 102 cases registered by ED so far, trial has completed only in one case. In most of the pending cases, charges are not framed and the predicate or the scheduled offences are yet to be transferred to the special PMLA court. Section 44(1) of the Act stipulates that both the predicate offence and the money-laundering case initiated on its basis should be tried together.

Special PMLA judge M G Deshpande had on September 11 raised the issue of pending trial while granting bail to Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP Sanjay Raut. He said though ED was fast in registering cases and making arrests, it was very slow when it came to completing trial.

The judge further said that right from the establishment of the designated court, ED had not recorded evidence in any of the cases and hence, the court had not been able to deliver a single judgement.

Framing of charges is the first step towards starting the trial after the agency has completed its investigation and filed a chargesheet.

The 2008 case involves a company, OPM International Private Limited and its directors.

Defence lawyer Ayaz Khan said ED was dragging its feet. “The agency took almost one-and-a-half years to file its reply to the discharge pleas. Thereafter, the matter has been pending for final arguments.”

The special judges have on several occasions asked ED to take steps to begin the trial and to get the predicate offences transferred to the PMLA courts. But, the agency is finding it quite a difficult task.

In the alleged 2009 multi-crore fraud involving Sayed Mohammed Masood of City Limousines group, the ED officer has been asked to locate 132 criminal cases registered against the group entities and their promoter - Masood - across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi. The agency has not made any headway yet.

Besides, in the cases where predicate offences are registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), ED faces a major problem. The special CBI courts refuse to transfer the cases to the PMLA court over jurisdictional issues.

Special judge Deshpande on September 11 also criticised ED for its slow pace in starting and completing trial.

The agency on the other hand claimed that framing of charges – the first step – was something that was required to be done by the court.

Court plays an important role in framing of charges and it’s not only the investigating agency who needs to work to expedite the trial, an ED official, requesting anonymity, said.

The official said the agency had been requesting the court to begin trial in several cases, and since 2016, they had written at least four letters - August 2, 2016, May 29, 2018, March 2, 2021, and April 6, 2022 - requesting the special court to frame charges in pending cases.

“In most of the cases, where investigation was over, we have filed draft charges to facilitate the process of framing of charges so that the trial could begin. However, starting and conducting trial is something the court can do. The agency’s role comes only when the court issues summons to their witnesses and the agency is called upon to lead evidence,” the official added.