New Delhi: Prosecution for money laundering cannot continue for a scheduled offence under an FIR which is compounded and quashed, the Delhi High Court has said. It, however, clarified that the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in such a case cannot be quashed completely if there is another FIR with respect to the same cause of action to legitimise the existence of the money laundering probe. The high court’s order came on a petition by a money laundering accused seeking to quash the ECIR registered against him on the basis of two Delhi Police FIRs in connection with alleged siphoning funds collected by him for the development of a realestate project. The petitioner said the jurisdictional fact which formed the basis of the ED investigation has now come to an end with the compounding and quashing of the FIRs pursuant to a settlement, and hence, the ECIR and the subsequent proceedings cannot continue any longer. The ED opposed the petition on the ground that during the pendency of the probe, a third FIR came into existence on the basis of similar allegations as in the previous FIRs, and the same was taken on record for further investigation in the already opened ECIR. The court was informed that several complainants were yet to settle their dispute with the petitioner and 79 complaints were still pending before RERA, Uttar Pradesh. Justice Amit Sharma, in a recent judgement, said that in the absence of a predicate

Press Trust of India