Supreme Court upholds Enforcement Directorate’s arrest rights

Supreme Court rejected the petitions of 242 people against the PMLA

New Delhi – The Supreme Court has upheld the powers of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to make arrests under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The Court gave this decision while hearing petitions challenging the constitutional rights under PMLA. ED uses the PMLA to take action against black money. 242 petitioners had challenged the arrest, seizure and investigation process of former Union Minister and Congress leader P. Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram, former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti by the ED under the Act. The Court said that the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) and First Information Report (FIR) cannot be combined. It is not necessary to give a copy of ECIR to the accused. Disclosure of reasons at the time of arrest is sufficient. The statement given to the ED is the evidence.

SC upholds ED’s power to make arrests, constitutional validity of PMLA: Here is what the petitioners had gone to Court againsthttps://t.co/IFXCtDQdIy

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ED has 3 thousand cases, but so far only 23 people have been convicted

The Centre said in reply to a question in the Lok Sabha that currently, ED has 3 thousand cases for investigation across the country. Since the PMLA act came into existence 17 years ago, 5,422 crimes have been registered under it. Only 23 people have been convicted in this case. ED has so far seized assets worth over Rs 1 lakh crore and filed charge sheets in 992 cases.