Mumbai, Nov 5 A special PMLA court here has accepted the Enforcement Directorate's closure report in a 2022 money laundering case registered against Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Hasan Mushrif and his sons, citing quashing of the linked predicate offences.
The money laundering probe stemmed from a complaint filed by Registrar of Companies (RoC), Pune, in March 2022 for alleged violations of the Companies Act, and a subsequent FIR registered at Murgud police station in Kolhapur in February 2023 for alleged fraudulent generation and manipulation of share capital raised from farmers.
However, the Bombay High Court, in 2025, quashed the offence registered at Murgud police station.
Seeking to close the probe, the ED informed the special court that since the scheduled offence is a 'sine qua non' (essential condition) for initiating proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), nothing survived in the money laundering complaint following the High Court orders.
"In view of the fact that the predicate offence has been quashed, the offence under the PMLA does not survive," Special PMLA Judge S V Sahare said in the order passed on Tuesday, details of which were made available on Thursday.
The special court, thus, closed the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) dated April 4, 2022, and directed that the case papers be returned to the ED officers.
Besides the Mushrifs, the accused in the case included Kolhapur-based Sar Senapati Santaji Ghorpade Sugar Factory Ltd and its directors.
The ED had claimed that, during 2013-2014, the sugar factory received crores of rupees from multiple shell and non-genuine entities, including Kolkata-based and struck-off companies, under the guise of equity and preference share subscriptions.
Investments exceeding Rs 11.35 crore were declared in financial statements without any corresponding bank trail, and substantial funds were routed through layered, circular transactions and cash deposits into the factory, its associated LLPs, and the accounts of directors, the ED claimed.
The probe agency had conducted multiple searches in early 2023 and provisionally attached fixed deposit receipts worth Rs 2.07 crore and Rs 7.70 lakh in cash in July 2024. The attachment was later confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority in New Delhi in December 2024.
However, the accused approached the Bombay High Court challenging the two predicate cases.
In June 2025, the High Court disposed of the petition seeking to quash the Murgud police FIR after noting that the investigating officer had already filed a 'C-Summary' report (case neither true nor false) before a local court, which was accepted.
Subsequently, on November 6 last year, the High Court quashed and set aside the process issued by a Pune court in the RoC complaint.
It had then observed that the allegations pertained to 2013-14, while the relevant amendment to the Companies Act, effective from April 2021, applied prospectively and not retrospectively.
