NEW DELHI: The rising number of suspicious financial dealings by companies and individuals unearthed over the past year has led to a huge spike in searches, raids and investigations by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMLA).
According to available data, in 2016-17, a total 161 searches were conducted by the probe agency under the PMLA, and this went up to 570 in 2017-18 (Upto February, 2018), a hike of over 300 per cent.
Over the past two years, investigations were initiated in 318 cases and investigations were concluded in 417 cases.
However, Finance ministry data shows that convictions were secured only in four cases, two each in 2016-17 and 2017-18.
Legal experts say that there are many reasons behind this. “Cases under PMLA is totally different from the general crime cases,” explains an advocate with the prosecution wing of the agency. “You will not get any eyewitness.
Cases are on the basis of documents and inferences drawn from those documents. We need to make chain on the basis of circumstantial evidences.”
“Decoding money trail and electronic transactions require a lot of time. We need to establish the actual money trail in the courts,” said another advocate. Even before establishing the money trail, the prosecution has to establish that it is “crime money”. “It is not about single or solitary transactions. Hundreds of links need to be investigated by the probe agency,” he pointed out.
The PMLA has 28 types of offences that are treated as crime, including those of wilful pollution and trade in wildlife. “Multi-agency involvement like police or CBI is another reason. At times, lack of coordination between different agencies delays the investigation and prosecution in the case,” he added.
The ED also faces a massive staff crunch which impacts probes and prosecutions. “Number of search and seizures has gone up significantly. But, the Directorate is running with about 50 per cent of the staff strength,” added the lawyer.
Moreover, many amendments have been made into the PMLA Act in the last few years to make it more stringent. In 2013, the monetary threshold was done away with. In 2015 the definition of Proceeds of Crime was expanded to enable the Directorate to attach equivalent value of property in India of the accused, if the accused has moved the POCs out of India.