Written grounds of arrest must be provided to the accused under Section 19 of the PMLA; non-compliance renders the arrest illegal.

JUDGMENT

Mr. Vikram Aggarwal, J.

The petitioner herein has preferred the present Civil Writ Petition praying for the following substantial reliefs:-

(i) In consonance with the ratio laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in "Vijay Madanlal Choudhary v. Union of India & Ors. 2022 SCC Online SC 929" hold that any transaction that may have occurred prior to the coming into existence of the Schedule/Predicate Offence, cannot be covered for the said offence under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 as "proceeds of crime" defined under Section 2 (1)(u) thereof are dependent on illegal gain of property as a result of criminal activity relating to such scheduled offence and cannot have any independent existence of its own;

(ii) In consonance with the principles laid down by the Hon'ble Supreme Court vide order dated 3.10.2023 passed in Criminal Appeal No.3051-3052 of 2023 in Pankaj Bansal v. Union of India and others quash and set aside the arrest of the petitioner and consequential Arrest Order dated 8.6.2023 (Annexure P-15) as there has been grave violation of the mandatory postulates interdicting and governing the invocation of powers under section 19 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2022;

(iii) As a sequel and consequence to the prayer supra this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to set aside and quash the remand orders dated 9.6.2023 (Annexure P-19), 16.6.2023 (Annexure P-21) & 20.6.2023 (Annexure P-23) as well as subsequent remand orders passed by the Court of Special Judge, Panchkula whereby the petitioner has been remanded to Enforcement Directorate custody and/or to judicial custody as the remand orders so passed are patently routine and mechanical in nature and cannot cure the constitutional infirmities as guaranteed under Article 21 and 22 (1) & (2) of the Constitution.

(iv) Direct the forthwith release of the petitioner from custody as his any further incarceration would be anathema to law and gravely detrimental to the cause of justice;

2. The facts essential for the purpose of decision of the present petition and as emanating from the paper book are that certain FIRs were registered from 2018 to 2020 with different law enforcement agencies namely Haryana Police, Delhi Police and Delhi EOW, under Sections 120- B, 420, 467, 471 IPC against M/s IREO Private Limited and others. These FIRs were registered at the instance of allottees of residential projects developed by the IREO Group. Since the offences under IPC are scheduled offences (as defined under section 2(1)(y) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002) (for short 'the PMLA'), the Enforcement Directorate recorded an Enforcement Case Information Report No.ECIR/GNZO/10/2021 dated 15.06.2021 (hereinafter referred to as 'the First ECIR') against one Lalit Goyal, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of M/s IREO Private Limited and others with a view to investigate the offence of Money Laundering as defined under Section 3 and punishable under Section 4 of PMLA.

2(i). During the course of investigation, searches as envisaged under Section 17 of PMLA were conducted and based upon the material evidence collected, a prosecution complaint under Sections 44 and 45 of PMLA bearing No.COMA/01/2022 was filed against Lalit Goyal and six IREO Group of Corporate entities.

2(ii). Attachment of properties etc. was carried out in terms of the provisions of PMLA. During the further course of investigation, it was allegedly found that in addition t