New Delhi, Jul 23 (PTI) A Delhi court on Monday dismissed a money laundering case against M/s Sunil Hi-tech Engineers Limited (SHEL) and others, citing their acquittal in the foundational original or predicate offence.
Special Judge (Prevention of Corruption Act) Dheeraj Mor said that the money/ property attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had to be released forthwith to the rightful claimant(s).
The judge said, “The very foundation of the present proceedings under the PMLA is the existence of the scheduled/ predicate offence.” He said once the court of competent jurisdiction concludes that no such offence has been committed in relation to the allegations forming the basis of the predicate offence, the proceedings in the present Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case cannot survive and are required to come to an end in accordance with the law laid down by the Supreme Court.
For the predicate or scheduled offence, the CBI had alleged irregularities in the allocation of the Adkoli coal block in Maharashtra, accusing the two former Maharashtra State Mining Corporation Limited (MSMCL) officials of entering into a criminal conspiracy to favour SHEL by declaring it technically eligible for a joint venture (JV) despite the absence of required mining experience.
The agency had alleged that specific clauses introduced into a draft JV agreement (JVA) during a November 2009 board meeting had improperly allowed the sale or pledge of shares, deviating from initial bid guidelines and giving an unfair advantage to a private entity.
Earlier on July 13, the present court had acquitted the accused persons, saying the foundational ingredients of the offences of cheating and criminal conspiracy remained wholly unestablished.
It had said the decision to declare SHEL as technically eligible was not a unilateral act by the accused, but a “collective institutional decision” that was scrutinised and approved at various levels of the Maharashtra government, including a high-power committee (HPC) and the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure.
In Thursday’s order, Judge Mor said the judgment of July 13 made it clear that the accused persons in the predicate offence had been acquitted.
He said, “It has also been concluded, upon detailed consideration, that no illegality or criminality could be established by the prosecution against SHEL, its affiliates or the SPV in respect of any of the transactions undertaken by them in relation to the impugned JVA dated November, 21, 2009, or even in respect of the other unconnected transaction alleged in the charge-sheet.” The judge said that in the wake of the judgment, the foundational scheduled or predicate offence, as alleged in the chargesheet, no longer survives in law.
He said, “Accordingly, in view of the law laid down by the Supreme Court in Vijay Madanlal case (of 2022), the offence under Section 3 (offence of money laundering) read with Section 70 (offences by companies) of PMLA, punishable under Section 4 thereof cannot survive.” “Thus, the present proceedings against all the accused persons are hereby closed/ dropped, and the complaint is dismissed.” Senior advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey appeared for Jaypee Development Corporation Limited and another acquitted person. PTI MNR MNR KSS KSS
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