SC stays trial in money laundering case against Santiago Martin

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the proceedings before a special court in a money laundering case against ‘lottery king’ Santiago Martin, whose company donated the most to political parties through the controversial electoral bonds scheme.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan issued notice on a plea by Martin challenging the March 16 order of a special PMLA court in Kerala’s Ernakulam dismissing his petition for keeping in abeyance the trial in the money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Senior advocate Aditya Sondhi and advocate Rohini Musa, who appeared for Martin, said that the special court ought to have considered that the trial in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case can commence only after the conclusion of the trial in the predicate (main) case.

The ED usually registers a money laundering case on the basis of an FIR or probe conducted in corruption or tax evasion cases by relevant central agencies like the CBI and the Income Tax department which constitute the predicate or scheduled offence.

On March 16, the special court had dismissed Martin’s application for keeping in abeyance the trial in the ED case until the trial in the matter involving the predicate offence registered by the CBI in an alleged lottery scam case has concluded.

He has moved the apex court against the PMLA court’s order.

Referring to the 2022 verdict in the Vijay Madanlal Chaudhary case, he said proceedings under PMLA cannot continue once there has been an acquittal or discharge in the predicate case.

The appeal, filed through advocate Rohini Musa said, “The present petition raises a significant question of law that in the event of the trial of the predicate case being transferred to the jurisdictional Court in seisin of the trial of the PMLA case, then in the sequence of trial, which case should take precedence.”