'ED is not a super cop': Karnataka HC quashes ECIR against Congress MLA, others

NEW DELHI: Quashing an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) case against a Congress MLA and others, the Karnataka high court said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) “is not a super cop” empowered to investigate anything and everything that comes to its notice.The ruling came in a batch of petitions arising from an ED investigation into alleged irregularities in recruitment at the Kolar-Chikkaballapur District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Ltd (KOMUL). Those accused in the case included Congress MLA KY Nanjegowda and others associated with him.Taking note of submissions by the petitioners’ counsel, Justice MI Arun emphasised that the agency's powers under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) are “derivative and not original," and that money-laundering proceedings cannot survive independently of a scheduled offence."ED’s role under the PMLA commences only after a primary law-enforcement agency registers an FIR or a formal criminal complaint concerning a scheduled offence.