A special PMLA Court has accepted the agency’s closure report in the money laundering probe linked to Tenet Exim Private Limited, holding that the case cannot survive once the underlying scheduled offence itself has been closed. The ruling brings an end to the ECIR arising from allegations of bank fraud, underscoring the legal dependency of PMLA proceedings on the fate of the predicate offence.
The case stemmed from a 2020 FIR registered by the CBI on a complaint by the Central Bank of India, alleging cheating and criminal conspiracy against Tenet Exim Private Limited and its directors in relation to a credit facility of over Rs. 100 crore. However, the criminal law trajectory shifted when a magistrate court accepted the CBI’s closure report in September 2024, concluding that there was insufficient material to proceed against the accused.
With the predicate offence thus terminated, the ED moved the PMLA court seeking closure of its parallel proceedings, asserting that no proceeds of crime were traced or attached during the investigation.
Special Judge (PMLA) R.B. Rote agreed with the ED’s assessment, noting that under the statute, “an offence of money laundering cannot exist in the absence of a scheduled offence.” The court emphasised that the magistrate’s acceptance of the CBI closure report had attained finality, particularly since no appeal was filed against it.
Observing that no independent material linked the accused to money laundering, the court held that continuation of the ECIR was “not maintainable” and formally accepted the ED’s closure report.
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