The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is a central agency working directly under the Ministry of Finance, tasked with investigating and enforcing laws related to financial offenses. Its origin goes back to 1 May, 1956, when an Enforcement Unit was formed in the Department of Economic Affairs for handling Exchange Control Laws violations under Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947. The following year, this Unit was renamed as Enforcement Directorate.
The ED’s mandate encompasses investigating offenses under significant legislative frameworks such as the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Foreign Exchange Management Act of 1999 (FEMA), and the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act of 2018 (FEOA). The agency investigates individuals and entities involved in financial wrongdoing. This may include tracing illicit funds, seizing assets acquired through illegal means, and prosecuting offenders to ensure accountability and deterrence.
Headquartered in New Delhi, the ED operates through a network of regional offices in Mumbai, Chennai, Chandigarh, Kolkata.
There are a few Indian economic offenders and several subversives living the high life in UK, thumbing their noses at India. Courtesy British judges who it appears hold a view that their understanding of law and justice is well above that of Indian judges and courts.
The latest fad amongst such offenders is to claim threat of torture or custodial death in an Indian prison and voila, off to the Savoy every Sunday!
We have a FTA. on the cards. The resolution of such impasse should be included in the negotiations. If such people are not not extradited, at least the financial loss suffered by India should be extracted from UK within the FTA.
In today’s world financial loss makes everyone reasonable.