The Karnataka High Court on Thursday quashed money laundering proceedings initiated by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) against the Mumbai-based NBFC Sammaan Capital, formerly IndiaBulls Housing Finance, holding that the agency’s case had lost its foundational predicate offences.
Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order after the ED submitted that it was not proceeding with its Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) or taking any coercive action against the company.
The ED had registered the ECIR under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on five FIRs filed against Sammaan Capital between 2017 and 2021.
The court noted that closure reports, or B-reports, in two FIRs had been accepted
by lower courts. In two other cases, police chargesheets did not name the NBFC as an accused for lack of evidence. In the fifth case, police filed a B-report in 2022, but the lower court had not accepted it as the complainant had failed to appear despite 10 notices.
The court said the pendency of the B-report could not become a reason for the ED to continue its proceedings.
Referring to a Supreme Court’s ruling, the court said the PMLA proceedings could not continue when the foundational FIRs no longer sustained the alleged offences.
“The foundation has gone, the superstructure cannot remain,” the court observed, quashing the ED proceedings against Sammaan Capital.
