New Delhi, May 18 -- The Supreme Court on Friday underscored that offences under PMLA are "parasitic", requiring predicate offences to exist. Without a predicate offence, PMLA charges cannot stand on their own, it said.
In a decision that emphasised the necessity for a robust legal foundation in financial crime investigations, the court said that ED must thoroughly establish the underlying predicate offences before pursuing money laundering charges in a case even though one or more accused may not be named in the predicate offence.
"But there must be a predicate offence registered in the case. Otherwise, how can the agency proceed on its own? PMLA is a parasitic offence. It must have a predicate offence to survive. It doesn't have its own...