HC reverses order, allows ED to revive case against 'lottery king' Santiago Martin

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has set aside an order of the Alandur Judicial Magistrate Court accepting the State's closure report in a case related to the seizure of Rs 7.20 crore tainted money, registered against lottery baron Santiago Martin, his wife Lima Rose and three others.

The State agency, Central Crime Branch (CCB), attempted to bury the predicate offence against Martin and his wife in a suspicious manner and on extraneous considerations, which is visible by filing the closure report, wrote a division bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice V Sivagnanam while allowing the criminal revision petition filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The bench refused to accept the contention of Martin that the money laundering case could not be sustained if the predicate offence was closed. "Once the proceeds of crime are traced out from the predicate offence, it has become a stand-alone offence and the process, which is to be proceeded by following the procedures as contemplated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)," held the bench.

During the pendency of the complaint under PMLA, if the predicate offence is closed as it is in the present case, it resulted in a miscarriage of justice, wrote the bench and directed CCB and ED to proceed with the case.

The factual matrix of the case is that on March 12, 2012, the CCB Chennai unit conducted a raid at the residence of Nagarajan, a business partner of Martin, and seized Rs 7.20 crore unaccounted money. According to CCB, Nagarajan gave a statement that the amount was the sale proceeds of lottery tickets from Kerala and Maharashtra, which were printed in Kolkata and Faridabad along with his partners Martin and Murthy, who were later listed in the case.

However, Martin submitted before the court that the seized amount was the advance money given to Murthy for the sale proceedings of property at Anna Nagar in favour of his wife Leema Rose and claimed it was untainted money.

The ED claimed that the investigation revealed that the stamp paper of the sale proceedings was issued with ante-dated, hence, Leema Rose and Murthy indulged in the fabrication of documents to paint tainted colour to the unaccounted money and booked Leema Rose under PMLA.

On November 14, 2022, the CCB filed a closure report giving clean chit to Martin and others, which was accepted by the judicial magistrate Alandur.