New Delhi [India], July 13 (ANI): A Special Court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at Rouse Avenue Courts has dropped the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) money laundering proceedings against former Member of Parliament Vijay Darda, his son Devendra Darda, businessman Manoj Kumar Jayaswal, and Abhishek Jayaswal, following their acquittal in the predicate CBI case relating to the Bandar coal block allocation.
Special Judge Sunena Sharma passed the order after noting that the accused had already been acquitted in the scheduled offence, which formed the basis of the ED’s prosecution under the PMLA.
The ED had alleged that around ₹24.6 crore transferred from entities linked to Manoj Kumar Jayaswal to a company associated with Vijay and Devendra Darda constituted “proceeds of crime” arising out of an alleged quid pro quo in the allocation of the Bandar coal block.
The order follows the Special Court’s judgement dated March 27, 2026, acquitting all accused, including Vijay Darda, Devendra Darda, Manoj Kumar Jayaswal, M/s AMR Iron and Steel Pvt. Ltd, and former Coal Secretary H.C. Gupta, in the CBI case concerning the Bandar coal block allocation.
The case was the first chargesheet filed by the CBI in the coal block allocation investigations.
Appearing for the accused, Advocates Mudit Jain, Yugant Sharma and Khonisha Ganvir argued that the offence of money laundering under the PMLA is dependent on the existence of a scheduled offence. They submitted that once all the accused had been acquitted in the predicate offence, the very foundation of the ED’s prosecution ceased to exist, and the alleged ₹24.6 crore could no longer be treated as proceeds of crime.
The ED opposed the plea, contending that the Court lacked the power to drop the proceedings at that stage. The defence, however, relied on the Supreme Court’s judgment in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary v. Union of India, arguing that in the absence of a surviving scheduled offence, the PMLA prosecution was unsustainable. Accepting the defence’s submissions, the Court dropped the proceedings against all the accused.
According to the original CBI case, AMR Iron and Steel Pvt. Ltd. had allegedly secured the Bandar coal block allocation by furnishing false information in conspiracy with the then Coal Secretary, while Vijay Darda, then a Rajya Sabha MP, was alleged to have written letters to the Prime Minister’s Office supporting the company’s allocation in return for financial consideration.
However, after an 11-year trial, the Special Court held that the prosecution had failed to establish any dishonest intent, any nexus between the alleged payments and the coal block allocation, or that the letters influenced the allocation process, resulting in the acquittal of all the accused.
With the present order, the parallel money laundering proceedings arising out of the Bandar coal block allocation have also come to an end in favour of the accused.
Advocates Mudit Jain, Yugant Sharma and Khonisha Ganvir represented the accused in the PMLA proceedings and had also appeared for them in the connected CBI trial. (ANI)
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