New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) secured convictions in 42 cases in the last five years, amounting to 4.6 percent of the 911 in which prosecution complaints were filed, according to data shared by the finance ministry in Rajya Sabha.
A prosecution complaint is an equivalent of a chargesheet for a case filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Out of the 911 prosecution complaints filed, trial is pending in 257 cases as of date. In 99 cases, the accused have been sentenced and proceeds of crime confiscated, Minister of State Pankaj Chaudhary told the Rajya Sabha.
Chaudhary’s reply was in response to questions raised by Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala, who asked whether the government had collected any data on the number of money-laundering cases where trial was pending, the accused convicted and cases disposed of in the last five years. The Congress-led opposition parties have always maintained that the BJP government was misusing the central agency.
Chaudhary said the ED has filed 911 prosecution complaints under PMLA in different courts between 1 January 2019 and 31 October 2024. While 50 were filed in 2019, 106 were registered in 2020, 128 in 2021, 182 in 2022, 239 in 2023 and 206 in 2024.
The ED comes under the finance ministry’s department of revenue. It was formed in 1957 to look into cases of foreign exchange related violations, a civil provision. But in 2002, after the PMLA was introduced, it started taking up cases of financial fraud and money laundering.
Surjewala also asked about the number of functioning special courts under the PMLA for trial of offences related to money laundering in the country. Chaudhary replied that as of 4 December 2024, 106 such special courts were operational.
Speaking to ThePrint, an ED officer said the low conviction rate was due to the long legal process. Courts take a long time to first see if it amounted to a predicate offence, he said, adding the evidence was looked into after that.
“It is a process. A case of financial crime needs to be built on circumstantial evidence and to unearth a money trail, the ED needs to look into several links. If chargesheets have been filed in so many cases, it means the agency has done its investigation. It is unfair to say the ED is solely responsible for the conviction rate,” the officer said.
‘Blatant witch-hunting’
Surjewala later took to X to say the central government was misusing the ED, and that the “massive witch-hunt” stood exposed. He pointed out publicly that in the last 5 years, “the ED’s conviction rate has not crossed 5%”.
Misuse of #ED & PMLA cases and the massive witch-hunt stands Exposed!
The Parliamentary answer to my Question reveals 3 stark facts ⬇️
1. In the last 5 years, the ED’s conviction rate has not crossed 5%.
Out of 911 cases filed under PMLA, only 42 (4.6%) have resulted in… pic.twitter.com/RxH7P3FZSN
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) December 11, 2024
The Congress leader further said: “Of the 911 cases, just 257 or 28 percent cases could reach trial stage, while 654 or 71.7 percent cases remained pending for 5 years, proving nothing but blatant witch-hunting.”
“In the last 5 years under the NDA government, 911 cases were filed, while in the entire 10 years of the UPA government, only 102 cases were filed. This shows a wholesome misuse of ED!” he added.
(Edited by Tikli Basu
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