Funds for future crimes not 'proceeds of crime', says HC

The Delhi high court on Wednesday ruled that funds collected illegally to commit a crime (a scheduled offence) in the future, cannot be an offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and that to be defined as "proceeds of crime", these funds would have to be generated by the crime.

- Shruti Kakkar

To be sure, the illegality in the collection of funds could make it a scheduled offence under any law, but the funds collected would not count as proceeds of crime under Section 3 of PMLA, justice Jasmeet Singh said.

"The proceeds of crime has to be generated as a result of criminal activity (scheduled offence). The collection of funds in an illegal way to commit a scheduled offence in future is not an offence of money laundering under PMLA," he added, granting bail to Parvez Ahmed, Abdul Muqeet and Mohd Ilyas, in a money laundering case concerning the banned organisation Popular Front of India (PFI).