Order in favour of lottery baron Santiago Martin set aside; Madras HC allows ED to revive case

Madras High Court overturns closure report in Santiago Martin case, allowing ED and CCB to continue prosecution.

The Madras High Court on Monday (October 28, 2024) set aside an Alandur Judicial Magistrate’s November 17, 2022 order accepting the closure report filed by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police on November 14, 2022 in a criminal case registered against lottery baron Santiago Martin, his wife M. Leema Rose and three others pursuant to the seizure of ₹7.20 crore from the residence of one of them.

Also read:Santiago Martin aka Lottery King | The business tycoon who topped the list of electoral bond donors

A Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and V. Sivagnanam allowed a criminal revision petition filed by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) against the acceptance of the closure report by the Magistrate and permitted the ED as well as the CCB to continue the prosecution under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) of 2002 and the provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) respectively.

Additional Solicitor General AR.L. Sundaresan, representing the ED, had argued that the investigating agencies were duty bound to ensure that no accused goes scot free from a serious economic offence. He said, the ED was unable to probe the matter under the PMLA of 2002 just because an investigating officer attached to the CCB had decided to close the case booked for the predicate offence.

Claiming there were enough materials to doubt that the suspects had created an ante-dated false sale agreement related to an immovable property for explaining the possession of ₹7.20 crore in cash, Mr. Sundaresan said, the ED was entitled to request the High Court to find out whether the CCB was justified in closing the case and whether the Magistrate had applied his mind before accepting the closure report.

The police had seized the money during a search at the house of M. Nagarajan at Thillai Ganga Nagar in Nanganallur on March 12, 2012. A day later, it seized another ₹50 lakh from his associate G. Moorthy. Further investigation revealed that they, along with the lottery baron, were involved in the sale of banned lottery tickets in Chennai. Hence, he was detained under the Goondas Act too.

The suspects, on the other hand, claimed the seized money was the advance amount given by the lottery baron’s wife to Moorthy for purchasing a house worth ₹12.30 crore at Anna Nagar in Chennai. They also claimed to have declared the transaction in the Income Tax returns. Pursuant to their explanation, the CCB chose to close the case and the Magistrate also accepted it by a one-line order, the ASG complained.