CHENNAI: A special court for cases under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has ordered dropping of the money-laundering charges against four private entities, facing charges for allegedly inflating prices and supplying poor quality coal for public sector undertakings.
J Omprakash, judge of 13th Additional Special Court for CBI Cases, which is also special court for PMLA cases, passed the orders recently in this regard in money-laundering cases against Coastal Energy Private Limited, Coastal Energen Private Limited, Coal and Oil Company, DMCC, and Coal and Oil Company LLC, both based in Dubai.
Citing the binding principle laid down by the Supreme Court in the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary case, the court said in view of quash of the predicate offence FIR by the Delhi High Court, the present proceedings against these companies are dropped.
However, it granted the liberty to the ED to bring back the money laundering proceedings if the predicate offence is revived. The CBI registered cases in 2018 under various sections of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act against Ahmed AR Buhari, an NRI businessman and certain private companies on the complaints of inflating prices and supplying poor quality coal for public sector undertakings. Based on the predicate offence, the ED registered an enforcement case information report (ECIR), in 2018, and arrested Buhari in 2022.
In 2025, the Delhi Court quashed the predicate offence case against Buhari. Subsequently, he approached the Madras High Court to quash the money laundering cases and the court quashed such cases against him and two other accused. Based on these court orders which quashed the predicate offence cases, these companies approached the special court for quashing the money laundering cases.