There is no restriction in
respect attachment of property of person in possession of proceeds of crime.
Section 5 of Money Laundering Act, 2002 does not have restriction that property
in hands of persons involved in Money Laundering alone can be attached pending
confiscation. Thus, provisional attachment of property is not restricted in
hands of accused persons alone.
Facts
a)
‘G’ was accused of having
played fraud and obtained a loan of Rs.15 Crores by producing bogus and
fabricated documents. Out of the said amount, the property in question was
purchased by him in the names of his Benamies. ‘A’ was appointed as their Power
Agent. One ‘GS’ purchased the property through the Power Agent ‘A’, later on,
‘GS’ sold property to appellants.
b)
The respondent- Deputy
Director, PMLA, Directorate of Enforcement filed a complaint under Section 5(5)of the PMLA, 2002 against the appellants and ‘G’ having reason to believe that
property in the hands of appellants was part of proceeds of crime u/s 2(1)(u)
of the PMLA,2002 and appellants and ‘G: were involved in the offence of money
laundering and held them liable for adjudication and confiscation in terms of
Section 8 of PMLA, 2002
c)
The appellants said that they
were bonafide purchasers of the land and the consideration was paid through
legal source of income through agricultural operations and transactions were
carried out through bank also and they were not aware of that property bought
by them was a proceed of crime.
d)
The adjudicating authority held that property represented the
proceeds of crime and
