SC to hear ED plea against transfer of Amrapali money laundering case to Ghaziabad

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear the plea of Enforcement Directorate against the Allahabad High Court order transferring a money laundering case related to siphoning off homebuyers’ money by the Amrapali group.

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on August 11, 2025, had ordered the transfer of a money laundering case filed by the ED against Ajay Kumar and two others from a special PMLA court in Lucknow to a designated court in Ghaziabad.

A Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana took note of the submissions of Additional Solicitor General S V Raju that the high court wrongly transferred the money laundering case.

The bench also issued notices to former promoters of the real estate firm, Anil Kumar Sharma, Ajay Kumar, and Shiv Priya.

The high court had allowed the application and held that the transfer was warranted in view of the Central government’s notification dated October 7, 2022, issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

The accused had contended that since the alleged offence pertains to Gautam Buddh Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh, the case should be tried by the Special Court, Anti-Corruption, CBI (West), Ghaziabad, as specified in the 2022 notification. The ED had opposed the plea, relying on the Supreme Court’s decision.

However, the high court rejected the ED’s contention, observing that the arguments advanced by the agency were not in consonance with the statutory notification governing the territorial jurisdiction of designated PMLA courts.

Allowing the application, the high court directed that the pending complaint case before the Special PMLA Court in Lucknow be transferred to the designated Special Court at Ghaziabad.

The high court had also directed that the case records be transmitted to the competent court at the earliest in accordance with the prescribed procedure.

The apex court in its July 23, 2019, verdict had cracked whip on errant builders for breaching the trust reposed by the homebuyers, and ordered the cancellation of Amrapali Group’s registration under real estate law RERA, and ousted it from prime properties in the NCR by nixing land leases.

Several cases are pending against the promoters.