PMLA cannot be invoked citing criminal conspiracy under Section 120B IPC unless conspiracy is for money laundering: Supreme Court

The Court explained that if a standalone allegation under Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) is allowed to be treated as sufficient to launch a PMLA probe, then any and every offence under the IPC could attract PMLA.

“Every crime which may generate proceeds of crime need not be a scheduled offence. Therefore, only certain specific offences have been included in the Schedule … even if an offence registered is not a scheduled offence, the provisions of the PMLA and, in particular, Section 3 will be invoked by simply applying Section 120­B,” the bench reasoned.

Source: Barandbench