SC quashes ED summons to Karnataka deputy CM

Supreme Court quashed the Enforcement Directorate’s summons under PMLA to Karnataka deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar, which were issued shortly after an Income Tax raid in 2017 allegedly led to the seizure of £700,000 unaccounted cash from the Congress leader and his aide’s premises. The summons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) were issued by the ED taking conspiracy, punishable under Section 120B (conspiracy to commit an offence), to be a standalone predicate offence. Shivkumar’s discharge plea was rejected by a Bengaluru special court and the Karnataka HC. The Congress leader had moved the SC and pleaded that in absence of any conspiracy for commission of any ‘scheduled offence’, no ‘proceeds of crime’ as defined in Section 2(u) of PMLA can be said to exist. Consequently, Section 3 of PMLA cannot apply, he had said.