New Delhi, Nov. 5 -- The Delhi High Court has ruled that profits earned from trading shares whose value was artificially inflated through fraud constitute "proceeds of crime" under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and can therefore be attached by the Enforcement Directorate.

A division bench of justices Anil Kshetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar delivered the verdict on Monday, setting aside a single judge's January 2023 ruling that had quashed the ED's provisional attachment order against Prakash Industries Limited (PIL) and its group company, Prakash Thermal Power Limited (PTPL) - entities that were caught in the coal block allocation irregularities controversy of 2012.

The case stems from investigations that began a...