Story in Numbers: A deep dive into Enforcement Directorate's investigations

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), the agency that investigates money laundering and allied crime, has been criticised for its use against politicians from opposition parties.

In March this year, Congress MP Manish Tewari asked a series of searching questions about the ED’s performance in a written question in the Lok Sabha. Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary replied in a statement. Among the questions asked by Tewari were:
 

(a) Whether it is a fact that the ED has conducted over 1,700 raids and launched 1,569 special investi­g­a­tions between 2011 and 2020;

(b) Whether the conviction rate of ED, in raids conducted under FEMA, is merely 0.5 per cent between 2014 and 2022;

(c) Whether it is a fact that the ED has been able to secure convictions in only nine of these cases.

Chaudhary presented the facts. He said that during 2004-14, 112 searches were carried out which resulted in the attachment of proceeds of crime of Rs 5,346.16 crore and the filing of 104 prosecution complaints. But during 2014-22, 2,974 searches were conducted, which resulted in the attachment of Proceeds of Crime of Rs 95,432.08 crore and the filing of 839 prosecution complaints. The Narendra Modi-led National Demo­c­r­atic Alliance government came to power in 2014.

Chaudhary explained that searches in the course of investigation of money laundering cases are very important from the perspective of the collection of evidence. An increase in the number of searches shows government’s commitment to prevent money laundering and improved systems for gathering financial intelligence through the use of technology, better inter-agency cooperation and exchange of information both domestically and internationally, concerted efforts to complete pending investigations in old cases and investigations in complex money laundering cases that have multiple accused requiring multiple searches. These are some of the reasons for the increase in number of searches, he said. On convictions, he said of all convictions, only one had been discharged on merit.  

Source: Lok Sabha questions