Money laundering case against Central Rly officials: Special court accepts ED's closure report

Mumbai, Dec 5 (PTI) A special court here has accepted the closure report filed by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case against several Central Railway officials, saying no case is made out as the predicate offence is already closed.

The PMLA case stemmed from an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation on February 4, 2022, alleging that eight Central Railway officials had conspired with suppliers to procure replaceable stores and parts at inflated prices for personal monetary gain. The accused included then Senior Divisional Electrical Engineer Ved Prakash and Assistant Divisional Electrical Engineer Vijay Kumar.

The investigation revealed irregularities in the tendering process, including ambiguous item descriptions, limited tenders, and the awarding of contracts to unregistered suppliers.

However, the CBI's closure report, accepted by the Special Court for CBI on January 1 last year stated that no strong evidence was found to prosecute the accused.

As per Supreme Court guidelines, a money laundering case cannot stand in absence of a predicate offence.

Hence, special Judge RB Rote on December 1 accepted the ED's closure report.

"Since the closure report filed by CBI in respect of the predicate offence has been accepted, the continuation of the ECIR (ED case) is not maintainable," the court said. PTI AVI BNM