The Delhi High Court on Thursday upheld the validity of a money laundering law provision that empowers the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to provisionally attach the properties bought from proceeds of crime.
The court’s order came on a batch of 19 petitions, including that of former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife Pratibha Singh, challenging a Section in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as against the Constitution.
Besides Ms. Singh, her daughter Aprajita Singh, sand-mining baron and former Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) board member J. Sekar Reddy and his business associates S. Ramachandran and K. Rethinam had approached the court.
All petitioners are facing proceedings under the PMLA and orders of provisional attachment of assets have been issued against them. They challenged the Section which deals with the power of an officer not below the rank of Deputy Director in the ED to provisionally attach a person’s property suspected to be brought from proceeds of crime, if he has “reasons to believe” that not doing so could frustrate the PMLA proceedings.
