"Enforcement Directorate's Power Confined To...": Delhi Court's Big Order
NDTV
The high court said the predicate offence has to be necessarily investigated and tried by the authorities empowered by law in that regard.
The Delhi High Court has held that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has the power to investigate and inquire into an offence of money laundering under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) only, and it cannot assume that a predicate offence has been committed.
The high court said the predicate offence has to be necessarily investigated and tried by the authorities empowered by law in that regard, and the ED cannot possibly arrogate unto itself the power to investigate into the alleged commission of those offences.
"What needs to be emphasised is that the PMLA empowers the ED to investigate Section 3 offences only. Its power to investigate and enquire stands confined to the offence of money laundering as defined in that section. However, the same cannot be read as enabling it to assume from the material, that it may gather in the course of that investigation, that a predicate offence stands committed.
"The predicate offence has to be necessarily investigated and tried by the authorities empowered by law in that regard," Justice Yashwant Varma said in a 111-page judgement passed on January 24.
