New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the special court’s money laundering case against “lottery king” Santiago Martin, who donated the most money to political parties through a controversial electoral bond scheme.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan issued notice on Mr Martin’s plea challenging the March 16 order of the special PMLA court in Ernakulam, Kerala, which dismissed Martin’s request to stay the money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate. Request for Trial (Supplement).

Senior advocates Aditya Sondhi and Rohini Musa, appearing for Mr Martin, said the special court should take into consideration that trials in Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases can only begin after the predicate trial is over. (Main) case.

The ED usually registers money laundering cases based on FIRs or investigations conducted by relevant central agencies such as the FBI and the Income Tax Department in cases of corruption or tax evasion, which constitute predicate offenses or scheduled offences.

On March 16, the Special Court dismissed Mr Martin’s application to stay the trial in the ED case until the completion of the trial involving the predicate offenses registered by the CBI in the alleged lottery scam case.

He has moved the Supreme Court against the PMLA court order.

Referring to the 2022 verdict in the Vijay Madanlal Chaudhary case, he said that once there is acquittal or discharge in the upstream case, the proceedings under PMLA cannot continue.

The appeal, filed through advocate Rohini Musa, said, “The present petition raises an important question of law that if the trial of the upstream case is transferred to a court of competent jurisdiction to hear PMLA cases, So the order of trial, which case should take priority.” The plea contended that the CBI case is a so-called predicate case and it has been transferred to the special court and an order was issued on September 28, 2023.

“The discharge petition filed in the predicate case was filed by the petitioner and is pending for consideration. If the petitioner is discharged in the predicate case, then there will be no question of continuation of the PMLA proceedings,” it said.

Mr. Martin said that as per the Supreme Court’s 2022 judgment in the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary case, acquittal in the upstream case would automatically result in the proceedings under the PMLA not continuing and therefore, in the order of trial, it should be the predicate case that needs to be heard first. .

He said the Supreme Court, in its judgment related to the case, had ruled that prosecutions for money laundering offenses would automatically be deemed non-money laundering (prosecution discontinued) if the listed offenses were acquitted or discharged or dismissed. exist).

He said that the trial of the upstream case can only begin after the trial of the upstream case is completed. “Suspending further proceedings until the upstream case has been dealt with will not cause any prejudice to the claimant. If further proceedings in this case are not stayed, serious prejudice, irreparable harm and harm will be caused to the claimant,” Mr Martin said in supplication.

In 2014, the CBI registered a case of alleged lottery fraud and laid charges against Mr Martin and others. According to the charge sheet, the Enforcement Directorate filed a money laundering complaint against seven persons, including Mr. Martin, on June 11, 2018.

On September 30, 2019, Mr. Martin filed a discharge application in the CBI case, which is pending.

He moved the PMLA court on November 16, 2023, urging it to stay all further proceedings on the money laundering issue until the CBI case is disposed of. The application was rejected on March 16.

Santiago Martin’s Coimbatore-based Future Gaming and Hotel Services was the largest buyer of electoral bonds worth Rs 1,368 crore.

The Supreme Court in February struck down the electoral bonds program, which provides blanket anonymity to individuals and corporate entities who donate to political parties, as “unconstitutional and manifestly arbitrary.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)