The Bombay high court at Goa on Monday quashed the first information report (FIR) registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) back in 2013 in connection with the Goa illegal mining case that was registered following the tabling of the Justice MB Shah Commission report.
The high court, in its order said that since the Goa police Crime Branch FIR itself was quashed on account of a lack of progress in the investigation for more than a decade, the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) registered by the ED would also fall.
“It is a settled position of law that the authorities under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, cannot prosecute any person on a notional basis, unless an offence is registered against them and where such person/persons is/are finally acquitted or a criminal case against him is quashed by the Court of competent jurisdiction, then there can be no offence of money laundering against him,” the high court single judge bench of justice Amit Jamsandekar ruled.
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“Thus, in the absence of a subsisting predicate offence, an ECIR becomes legally incomprehensible, and the Enforcement Directorate cannot exercise its jurisdiction. The reason is the PMLA scheme, which gives the Enforcement Directorate authority and jurisdiction only when a predicate offence subsists. Once the predicate offence ceases to exist by reasons of discharge, acquittal or acceptance of a closure report or due to the quashing of the FIR, the Enforcement Directorate cannot proceed further,” the high court also said.
“There is nothing on record to show that there was any investigation carried on by the SIT [Special Investigation Team] after registration of the FIR,” the judge observed.
A group of seven mining companies led by Salgaocar Mining Company filed a petition in the high court seeking to quash the case of money laundering against them.
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In July last year, after hearing a similar application, the high court quashed the FIR launched in the wake of the Shah Commission report on illegal mining in Goa back in 2013.
It also allowed a plea filed by Salgaocar Mining Industries and six other mining companies that the FIR registered with Crime Branch police station be quashed with respect to the petitioners, their directors, partners, shareholders or employees.
The high court noted that “there has been no progress in the investigation since August 2013” and that “the delay in prosecution is not merely a delay; it is an inordinate one.”
On August 12, 2013 Goa’s then director of mines Prasanna Acharya registered a complaint with the Goa police Crime Branch. Acharya alleged, “persons who are identified in the report of the Central Empowered Committee appointed by the Supreme Court of India, Justice Shah Commission Report and Report of Public Accounts Committee of the State of Goa, along with the others,” hatched criminal conspiracy and illegally extracted mineral ore in violation over several Central and state Acts and rules causing wrongful loss to the State Exchequer to the tune of ₹35,000crore and consequent wrongful gain for themselves.
Following the registration of the main FIR, the Crime Branch through a specially constituted SIT, launched investigation into all 127 of Goa’s then operational mining leases which resulted in 16 subsequent additional FIRs being lodged against various parties.
In all, 52 individuals and two companies were booked for committing offences related to illegal mining.
However, data provided by the SIT revealed that of the 16 cases, only nine were charge-sheeted. Five cases are pending trial and one was quashed by the high court on grounds of double jeopardy, since the same case was also registered at Raipur in Chhattisgarh. The others were closed on account of lack of evidence or no wrongdoing being found against the accused.
Former Congress chief minister Digambar Kamat was named as an accused in the FIR lodged by the director of mines. However, in February last year the principal district and sessions judge Panaji Irshad Aga pronounced his order discharging former Goa CM and mines minister Digambar Kamat and 15 others in an illegal mining case.
Kamat who along with several other mines department officials were accused of facilitating the illegal restart and operation of an expired mine, was discharged on grounds that there was not enough evidence of wrongdoing to proceed with the trial.