New Delhi, Apr 10 (Reporter) The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the trial of lottery tycoon Santiago Martin under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as proceedings are on in another CBI case registered against him. A Division Bench Comprising Justices AS Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, while staying the proceedings under PMLA, directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to reply to Martin’s plea seeking stay on the case until trial court proceedings in another case registered by CBI against him are complete. Senior Advocate Aditya Sondhi along with Advocate Rohini Musa appeared for Martin. Martin has been accused of being involved in a lottery scam, allegedly linked to the sale of lottery tickets by the Sikkim government in Kerala. The ED had booked him in a money laundering case based on a chargesheet filed by the Kochi office of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in which he was charged under certain provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as the Lotteries (Regulation) Act of 1998. Charges against Martin are that he allegedly caused a loss of approximately Rs 900 crore to the Sikkim government. Martin is also reported to be the single largest donor of electoral bonds (Rs1,368 crores), as per data disclosed by the State Bank of India (SBI). Martin in his plea before the Supreme Court has raised questions about whether the trial of a predicate offence (underlying offence, which refers to the CBI's case) should take precedence over the trial in the PMLA case being probed by the ED. Martin had applied to the top court in November 2023, praying that the PMLA proceedings be stayed until the disposal of the predicate case handled by the CBI. This application was later transferred to the Special Court, Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ernakulam. The Special PMLA Court at Ernakulam dismissed Martin's plea to halt the PMLA case proceedings against him on March 16. The trial court held that the CBI and ED cases were separate and that it did not have the power to stay the proceedings as sought by Martin. The lottery tycoon contended that the CBI trial to predicate offences should conclude first, and then the trial in the PMLA case/ ED's case can proceed. Highlighting the Supreme Court judgement in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary v. Union of India passed in 2022 that an acquittal in the predicate case would automatically result in the non–continuance of proceedings under the PMLA, Martin prayed to keep the PMLA trial against him at abeyance till the final disposal of the predicate case, that is, the CBI case...////...