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Informist, Tuesday, Aug 6, 2024

 

NEW DELHI – Of 132 cases against existing and former lawmakers and legislators filed by the Enforcement Directorate in the last five years under money laundering laws, only one person has been convicted so far, said Pankaj Chaudhary, Minister of State for Finance. Only in five instances, the trial has been completed by the court in the last five years.

 

This assumes significance in view of higher arrests of political leaders by the Enforcement Directorate. The opposition parties in the country have time and again said that the probe agency was misusing its power at the behest of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

 

Till date, the Enforcement Directorate has recorded 7,083 enforcement case information reports under the money laundering law. Chaudhary today said that the rate of conviction obtained under the money laundering law was around 93%. He said that the total value of proceeds seized under money laundering law was approximately 37.26 bln rupees and the frozen amount was approximately 46.52 bln rupees. The attachment of property or other things under the money laundering law was approximately 1.31 trln rupees.

 

Among the recent high profile arrests by the Enforcement Directorate, the names of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren have come to the forefront. While Kejriwal and Sisodia are being probed by the investigating agency in the Delhi liquor policy case, Soren is being probed in a case related to a land scam.

 

The Supreme Court today even asked the Enforcement Directorate as to how long it will take to complete the trial in Sisodia's case. "Where is the light at the end of the tunnel and how long will it take," questioned the court. In Kejriwal's case, the top court has referred to a larger bench the legal questions regarding the Enforcement Directorate's arrest of the Delhi chief minister.

 

A report by The Indian Express in 2022 stated that since 2014, when the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power, there had been a four-fold jump in the Enforcement Directorate cases against politicians in comparison to the earlier United Progressive Alliance. The report said that 121 prominent politicians had come under the directorate's probe between 2014 and 2022, of whom 115 were opposition leaders who were booked, arrested, raided or questioned. In a sharp contrast, in the United Progressive Alliance regime from 2004 to 2014, only 26 political leaders were probed by the agency, with 14 being opposition leaders.

 

Under the money laundering law, the Enforcement Directorate officers can arrest a person if it has, on the basis of a material in its possession, reason to believe that any person is guilty of an offence. In Kejriwal's case, the apex court raised some crucial concerns over the probe agency's power to arrest and the way it used that power. The top court had held that the probe agency must have a higher bar for what it considers their reasons for arresting someone.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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