Delhi High Court said that money laundering investigation cannot be continued even after the original FIR is quashed. The bench of Justice Amit Bansal clarified that the two FIRs filed in the year 2018 and 2021 on the basis of which the Enforcement Directorate (ED) initiated PMLA proceedings against the accused have been quashed by the lower court.

In such a situation, no case can be initiated under PMLA in relation to the said crimes. Accepting the plea of ​​the accused with the above observation, the court quashed the ECIR filed by the ED in the year 2019.

However, the bench refused to quash the third FIR lodged by the EOW in the year 2023 on the same allegations as in the previous FIR. The said FIR was taken on record in the ECIR for further investigation.

The court said that in the present case the offense still exists through the third FIR. It is pertinent to note that even in case of investigation of an FIR involving multiple complainants by the local police, compromise with some of them will not be a ground for quashing the said FIR.

Petitioner Rajinder Singh Chadha had filed the petition in 2019 seeking quashing of all proceedings taken under the ECIR registered by the ED. According to the petition, the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) had filed an FIR against Rajinder.

It was alleged that the accused company M/s Uppal Chadha Hi-Tech had promised to give possession of the buildings, but despite paying the money in the year 2006-07, the buyers did not get the possession of the buildings. It was also alleged that Chadha, as the director of the said company, was responsible for misappropriation of money collected from the complainants.