The Supreme Court
on Wednesday stayed the proceedings before a special court in a money
laundering case against 'lottery king' Santiago Martin.
A bench of Justices
Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan issued notice on a plea by Martin challenging the
March 16 order of a special PMLA court in Kerala's Ernakulam dismissing his
petition for keeping in abeyance the trial in the money laundering case
registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Senior advocate Aditya Sondhi and advocate Rohini
Musa, who appeared for Martin, said that the special court ought to have
considered that the trial in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case
can commence only after the conclusion of the trial in the predicate case.
On March 16, the
special court dismissed Martin's application seeking to keep in abeyance the
trial in the ED case till the conclusion of trial in the predicate offence, a
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case related to an alleged lottery scam.
In his plea
before the top court, Martin said the chargesheet filed by the CBI is the
predicate case on the basis of which the ED registered a money laundering case
against him and others.
Referring to the 2022
verdict in the Vijay Madanlal Chaudhary case, he said that proceedings under
the PMLA cannot be continued once there is an acquittal or discharge in the
predicate case.