The Supreme Court on Wednesday upholds the Enforcement Directorate’s power to arrest and seize properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). A batch of 250 petitions challenged the validity of various provisions of the law which was dismissed by a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar.
Important points:
- The Supreme Court said that it is not mandatory for Enforcement Directorate (ED) official’s to disclose the ground of arrest at the time of detaining an accused in money laundering case.
- The SC said that it is enough if ED, at the time of arrest, discloses ground of arrest.
- The SC upholds strict conditions for bail under PMLA and said it is legal and not arbitrary. If a bail plea is opposed, the court needs to be satisfied that the accused person is not guilty and will not commit any crime after release.
- The SC said that there is no way to formally register an ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) unlike first information report (FIR) in other crimes and also in every case it is not mandatory to supply ECIR to the person concerned. It is provided so that accused cannot try to remove even the traces of offence to frustrate the investigation.
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Among the other petitioners, Anil Deshmukh, Karti Chidambaram, and Mehbooba Mufti were among high profile-petitioners. The petitioners grappled with the PMLA provisions stating that it violates fundamentals rights.
With the PMLA provision, many opposition leaders are at huge risk who are under the scanner of Central Investigation Agency (CIA).
About PMLA:
The Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was enacted in 2002, but came into force with effect from July 1, 2005. The Act was enacted by the NDA government to prevent money laundering cases and confiscate properties derived from money-laundering.
According to Section 3 of PMLA, the definition of money laundering is,‘it states that whosoever directly or indirectly attempts to indulge or knowingly assists or knowingly is a party or is actually involved in any process or activity connected with the proceeds of crime, including its concealment, possession, acquisition or use and projecting or claiming it as untainted property, shall be guilty of the offence of money laundering.’
According to the year-wise data, 2021-22 saw the highest number of money laundering and foreign exchange violation cases in the last eight years of the Modi government. In 2020-21, the ED filed 5,313 cases under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and 1,180 under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
While the SC upheld ED’s power, the ED on Wednesday questioned Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi for three long hours on her third day over an alleged money laundering case related to the National Herald newspaper.
Many congress MPs and leaders are detained, while many congress protesters who addressed them as satyagrahas all over the country took to protest in support of the Congress chief.
The congress MPs were detained and kept at Kingsway Camp in Delhi, were released today on July 27.
#UPDATE | All Congress MPs and leaders that were detained and kept at Kingsway Camp in Delhi have now been released from there.
— ANI (@ANI) July 27, 2022
