Court discharges bullion trader five others in money laundering case

Mumbai, May 15 (PTI) A special PMLA court here on Thursday discharged a city-based bullion trader and five others in a scam of more than Rs 84 crore pertaining to gold purchase post-demonetisation.
Special judge Ajay Daga, hearing cases pertaining to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), discharged trader Chandrakant Patel and other accused in the absence of a predicate offence, and disposed of the case.
As per a Supreme Court order, if a person is discharged from a scheduled offence or the criminal case against him is quashed, there can be no offence of money laundering against him.
The money laundering matter, being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against Chandrakant Patel, director of Pushpak Bullion, and others, was based on a case registered against them by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Besides Patel, other accused in the case include two former Union Bank of India officials and directors of Pushpak Bullions.
During the hearing of the discharge pleas, the PMLA court judge noted that the CBI court in 2022 accepted the closure report filed by the probe agency for closing the predicate offence. Hence there is no predicate offence against the accused.
The ED earlier submitted that it has challenged the CBI court's closure report order before the Bombay High Court and the matter is sub-judice.
However, the PMLA judge said there is nothing on record to show that the HC has passed "any orders staying the effect of the order passed by the CBI court".
Thus, considering the law laid down by the apex court as the accused have been finally discharged from the predicate offence, there is no offence of money laundering against them and hence entitled for discharge, it added.
The ED claimed that after the announcement of demonetisation in November 2016, cash amounting to Rs 84.5 crore was deposited into the account of companies- M/s Pihu Gold and M/s Satnam Jewels- between November 15, 2016 to December 2016.
It claimed that the entire amount was then transferred in various tranches into the current account of Pushpak Bullions held with Union Bank of India.
The said funds were subsequently transferred to the account of Pushpak Bullions and further used towards the purchase of 258 kg gold bullion, the ED said.
As per the allegations, Pushpak Bullions was defaulter of the bank for an amount of Rs 114.19 crore and was still allowed to purchase the gold. It was revealed that Rs 84.60 crore were generated as a result of criminal activity and criminal conspiracy and is the proceeds of crime, the ED said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)