Madras high court upholds ED's power to issue repeated summonses in money laundering case

CHENNAI: The Madras high court has made it clear that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is empowered to issue repeated summonses to a person accused of money laundering, even after filing a complaint before a jurisdictional court.

A division bench of Justice S M Subramaniam and Justice M Jothiraman made the observation while dismissing pleas moved by P Palanichamy of PRP Granites and two others seeking to quash summonses issued by the ED in connection with a granite quarrying scam in 2020.

According to the petitioners, they already complied with the summons issued by the ED, but the agency is issuing repeated summonses seeking the same documents of the properties.

Opposing the plea, counsel for the ED, Rajnish Pathiyil, submitted that money laundering is a continuing offence and, therefore, the agency is empowered to issue summonses under section 50 (2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for holding further investigations even after the complaint is filed in the court.

Recording the submissions, the bench relied on the judgement of the Supreme Court in the Vijay Madanlal case and observed that the offence of money laundering is a continuing offence and the power to conduct further investigation exists. Therefore, this court does not find any infirmity in conducting further investigation by issuing summonses to any person under Section 50 (2) of the PMLA.