ED marches on at a stronger footing with better infrastructure, resources

Investigative agency pivots to manpower capabilities and specialised skills

A corner building just off the road in plush Lutyens Delhi looks almost like a fortress. With barbed wire on its perimeter, armed Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel manning the premises round the clock, and two tiny windows for all visitors to get registered before they enter  the present Enforcement Directorate (ED) office is a far cry from its erstwhile quarters. The days of renting two floors in a building with a common entrance are clearly behind the investigative agency.

Whether or not this improved infrastructure is the reason for ED’s activity seeing a sharp jump in the past few years may be up for debate, but many feel it has certainly been a factor.

Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the enforcement case information report by the ED has more than doubled in the April 2014 to January 2024 period compared to the July 2005 to March 2014 period. For the same period, the number of arrests went up from 29 to 720, convictions from nil to 32, and provisional attachment orders increased from 311 to 1,817.

“Where the ED officers are sitting makes a difference to their work. Officers are conducting interrogations that require a certain level of infrastructure. There is sensitive information that has to be stored properly. All this requires infrastructure,” said former ED chief Karnal Singh.

The ED made a shift to its state-of-the-art office with a covered area of approximately 83,000 square feet and an open area of more than 36,000 square feet, between April 2021 and January 2022.

The building not only accommodates the head office of ED but can also take on board zonal investigative zones for Delhi as well.

The other zones of ED are also not far behind.

Most of the zonal offices have either procured or are in the process of acquiring their buildings and lands to follow suit with their headquarters.

“The overall infrastructure was old and needed a revamp. There was an undercurrent for a long time to move to a better set-up that should be commensurate with the hard work being put in by the organisation to investigate financial crimes,” an official source said.

Working towards improved security, the CISF personnel have a clear direction — “nothing or no one can either get in or get out of the building without proper authorisation”.

More than 100 closed-circuit television cameras are installed at the ED head office. Many times, even the officials are not allowed access to all parts of the building.

The investigative agency’s focus has now turned to building up its manpower capabilities and specialisations.

A former ED official said that the agency was struggling to fill all its posts until a few years ago. Of its sanctioned strength of over 2,000, just about a fourth of vacancies were filled.

Sources said that while the sanctioned strength has remained the same, the agency has managed to fill over 70 per cent of the posts in the past two years.

“These posts require a highly specialised workforce. There are many rounds of background and security checks. It is not easy to fill these vacancies, but a lot of headway has been made,” the source added.

The investigative agency is also gearing up for the challenge of new-age crime in the highly globalised and technologically advanced world, such as cryptocurrency-related crimes.

“ED has to deal with complex financial statements. Lots of financial data has to be analysed, investigated, understood, and connected. The software to do a lot of this advanced work is not available in India. These capabilities are yet to be built at ED,” Singh added.

Currently, to assist its officers in the dependence of investigation on digital devices and electronic records, ED has a memorandum of understanding with the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) in Gujarat. The NFSU assists ED in the effective working of its six cyber laboratories (labs) across India. It also has a cyber forensic lab at NFSU, Gandhinagar, Gujarat as well.

“These labs have state-of-the-art software and hardware to extract digital evidence based on the prescribed procedure established by law,” the source said.

The days ahead for one of India’s premier investigative agencies include challenges that range from solving quality manpower to complex financial crimes. ED, it would seem, is more prepared than it ever was before.