New Delhi: During the hearing of a petition challenging the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), the Central government on Wednesday (February 23) informed the Supreme Court that Rs 18,000 crore has been recovered from India's fugitive traders. The Centre said that the amount has been recovered from fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya, diamond traders Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.
Stating the importance of the provisions of this law, the Centre's counsel defended the law in the top court. The matter was heard by a bench of justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar of the apex court. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta pleaded on behalf of the Central Government. He said India is part of the anti-money laundering network and there are several agreements that require all member countries to bring their respective money laundering laws in line with each other. The Centre told the court that in the cases of Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, their properties were seized and Rs 18,000 crore was returned to the banks by selling them. Mehta told the court that 4,700 PMLA cases are being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and cases worth Rs 67,000 crore are pending in the court. Of these, 313 accused have been arrested.
The central government told the court that it had 111 cases in 2015-16, while in 2020-21, the number increased to 981. In the last five years (2016-17 to 2020-21), 33 lakh FIRs have been registered for such offences, but only 2,086 of them have been included in the investigation. The Centre pointed out that very few such cases are taken up for investigation in India. He said that 7,900 cases are registered every year under the Money Laundering Act in the United Kingdom (UK), 1,532 in the US, 4,691 in China, 1,036 in Austria, 1,823 in Hong Kong, 1,862 in Belgium and 2,764 in Russia.
Filing a petition in the Supreme Court, the powers of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to search, seize, investigate and attach the proceeds of the offence under the PMLA Act have been challenged. Congress leader and several senior lawyers, including lawyers Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Mukul Rohatgi, have argued for possible misuse of the recent PMLA amendments.
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