Enforcement Directorate raids up 26 times since 2014: Govt data

The number of searches conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has increased by 26 times since 2014, revealed data released by the Union Finance Ministry.

Between 2004 and 2014, the number of ED searches stood at 112 but in the next eight years, it rose to 2,974, the data said. Similarly, the number of prosecution complaints – where the ED sums up the charges against an accused in court, like a police charge sheet – rose nearly eight times, from 104 in the years before 2014 to 839 since then.

The value of the assets attached by the ED also went up from ₹5,346 crore between 2004 and 2014 to ₹95,432 crore between 2014 and 2022.

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PMLA cases up, too

Data furnished by the Centre in the Supreme Court show similar trends. Of the 4,700 cases filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) since it came into force in 2005, nearly half, or 2,186 cases, have been filed in just the past five years.

The 2019 amendments appear to have accelerated action under the law. Between April 2020 and March 2021, when India spent months under a lockdown to contain the COVID pandemic, 981 cases were filed under PMLA – the highest since the law came into existence.

In August 2019, the Union government introduced the amendments in the form of money Bills, thereby bypassing the scrutiny of the Rajya Sabha. The government then claimed that the amendments were necessary to strengthen the ED’s ability to investigate serious financial crimes.

Opposition’s allegation

But the Opposition alleges that the Centre has made a law that already had provisions harsher than anti-terror laws even more draconian. They alleged that, armed with extraordinary powers, the ED is being harnessed by the government to go after its political adversaries.

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“The PMLA has become the main law of the Modi government but the conviction rate in money laundering cases remains dismal. The ED, in nearly 17 years of the PMLA, has been able to secure only 23 convictions,” said a senior Congress leader.

The leader alleged that only those from Opposition parties are being targeted through the law. “The money laundering law has been invoked against a range of companies, rights groups, activists and journalists, but the cases that have attracted the most attention are those against political leaders,” he said.

Very recently, ED summoned Shiv Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut after he was in the scene defending his leader Uddav Thackeray.

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