The PMLA Appellate Tribunal has dismissed Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram’s appeal and upheld the ED’s attachment of his Delhi property and bank accounts worth crores in the INX Media money laundering case.
New Delhi: The Appellate Tribunal under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has dismissed an appeal filed by Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram and confirmed the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) order to attach his properties and bank accounts worth several crores of rupees.
This decision came after a long legal battle over the attachment of Chidambaram’s assets. On October 10, 2018, the ED had passed a Provisional Attachment Order (PAO), seizing several of his bank accounts and his share in a South Delhi property.
Later, on March 29, 2019, the Adjudicating Authority (AA) upheld this attachment. Following that, Chidambaram filed an appeal before the Appellate Tribunal challenging the legality of the order.
A Bench of Members Balesh Kumar and Rajesh Malhotra of the Appellate Tribunal, in its order dated October 29, rejected Karti Chidambaram’s appeal and upheld the attachment by the Enforcement Directorate.
Karti Chidambaram, through his lawyers, argued that the attachment order was “bad in law” since the ED had filed its prosecution complaint more than 365 days after the confirmation of attachment.
According to him, this delay violated Section 8(3)(a) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), which limits the attachment period to 365 days during an ongoing investigation.
His legal team claimed that once this period was over, the attached properties should have been released automatically.
However, the Enforcement Directorate opposed this argument. The agency contended that the delay occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic and that the period of lockdown was covered by the Supreme Court’s order extending limitation periods during that time.
The Appellate Tribunal accepted the ED’s argument and noted the extraordinary situation faced by investigating officers during the pandemic.
In its order, the Bench said:
“The enormity of the situation for the Investigating Officer to have completed the investigation during the period of lockdown, when he was not even authorized to visit the witnesses or record their statements needs to be appreciated. In any case such witnesses could have declined to respond to the summons and tender their statements. The nature of Covid-19 did not rule out threat to life arising from mere human interaction. The extraordinary circumstances arisen due to Covid-19 would have had an impact on the pace of the investigations being conducted.”
The Tribunal acknowledged that the pandemic restrictions severely hampered the progress of investigations and held that the delay was justified. It therefore upheld the attachment of Chidambaram’s properties and bank accounts.
However, the Bench also took note of the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary & Ors v. Union of India & Ors, emphasizing that even though the attachment stands confirmed, the ED can take possession of the attached properties only for “exceptional reasons.”
With this ruling, Karti Chidambaram’s attempt to get relief against the ED’s attachment order has been rejected.
Advocates Arshdeep Khurana, Akshat Gupta, and Sidak Singh Anand appeared for Karti Chidambaram, while Advocates Zoheb Hossain, Vivek Gurnani, and Kanishk Maurya represented the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the case.
This decision further strengthens the ED’s position in money laundering investigations and reaffirms that COVID-19-related delays in proceedings are legally protected under the Supreme Court’s limitation extension orders.
It also clarifies that while the ED’s powers of attachment remain valid, the agency must act cautiously and only take possession of assets under exceptional circumstances as directed by the apex court.
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