NEW DELHI: Arrests effected by the ED in money laundering cases have reduced by about 27 per cent during the last financial year, but the value of attached assets recorded an all-time high at over 81,000 crore for the period, official data stated.
Searches or raids conducted by the central agency under the stringent provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) almost doubled to 2,892 during the 2025-26 fiscal that ended on March 31.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sweeping powers under the PMLA in connection with the definition of the proceeds of crime, power of arrest, search and seizure and attachment of properties.
The provisions of the Act also make securing bail extremely difficult because the court must be satisfied that the accused is not guilty, as well as not likely to commit another crime while on bail.
In the past fiscal, the ED breached its set target of restoring attached assets to victims of fraud by double, as it restituted properties worth more than Rs 32,000 crore during the said time period.
The agency had set a target of restoring assets worth Rs 15,000 crore at the start of the FY26 in April 2025.
PTI accessed the data furnished by the agency in its annual report (FY 2025-26) and found that the ED arrested 156 persons during the fiscal as compared to 214 in 2024-25, a decline of about 27 per cent. During 2023-24, the number stood at 272.
The ED reasoned that the arrests were reduced because it was undertaking "more targeted and evidence-based investigations".
Elaborating on the "highest-ever" provisional attachment of assets done by it in a single year (FY26) -- a whopping 171 per cent increase in value of attachments at Rs 81,422 crore under 712 orders -- the agency said this was a "central instrument" through which it ensures that criminals are deprived and stripped of the fruits of crime generated "illicitly".
In comparison, the agency had issued 461 provisional attachment orders with assets valued at Rs 30,036 crore frozen during FY25.
As the name suggests, these attachment orders are provisional and are confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority of the PMLA, a quasi-judicial body.
The raids undertaken by the ED, often covered extensively in television news and newspapers, jumped to more than double at 2,892 during FY26, compared to 1,491 during the previous year.
The report added that the ED was not relying "entirely" on physical searches but its investigators were "triangulating" financial intelligence from multiple databases simultaneously, tracing cryptocurrency flows through block chain analytics and accessing corporate and property records in real-time.
This led the ED to successfully file a "record" 812 chargesheets during FY26 as compared to 457 such complaints for prosecution filed before courts during the previous year.
That is why, the report said, ED has been able to "significantly" reduce the life cycle of cases from the earlier three-four years to 1-1.5 years now.
Data showed that the number of Enforcement Case Information Reports (ECIRs) registered to trigger PMLA probes, jumped 39 per cent to 1,080 cases during the last fiscal as compared to 775 cases filed during FY25.
The most critical data was reflected in the restitution of assets category where the ED restores assets attached by it under the PMLA to the victims of fraud such as investors, homebuyers and banks.
The agency restored assets worth Rs 32,678 crore during the last fiscal as compared to Rs 15,263 crore handed over to the victims of fraud during FY25.
ED Director Rahul Navin had set a target of restoring assets worth Rs 15,000 crore at the start of FY26, PTI reported last year.
The report said that the ED could "double" this figure as it got a major success in the PACL "ponzi" case in which the amount of assets restored was 15,582 crore, almost half of the total restored amount of Rs 32,678 crore.
The report also included figures of legal requests, like Letters Rotatory (LR) and Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLATs) requests, sent by the ED to countries for assistance in money laundering cases has grown "considerably".
As of March 31, 2026, there were 353 pending MLAT/LR requests with the most before the UAE at 69 (about 19.6 per cent), Singapore 55, UK 39, Hong Kong 36, USA 26, Switzerland 23 and Mauritius 15 among others.
The agency also got such legal cooperation requests from foreign shores and out of the 246 received till FY26, maximum were sent by the UK at 79 (32.9 per cent), Singapore 33, USA 32 and France 7 among others.
