ED filed 5,113 cases to curb money laundering in last 10 years: Official

New Delhi, May 1 (IANS) Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary on Thursday highlighted the key role that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has to play in ensuring an “economically secure India” as the country is headed to become a fully developed economy.

In his address at the ED's 69th Foundation Day celebration here, the Minister said: "The vision of a developed India inherently includes the vision of a secure India. The contribution of the Enforcement Directorate will be extremely important in an economically secure India.”

“The vision of our Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) is that no economic offender should be able to deprive the common and poor citizens of their rights, and prevention is essential for this as well as ensuring that the offender receives appropriate punishment. The role of the Enforcement Directorate is extremely important in both areas,” he added.

In his address on the occasion, ED Director Rahul Navin emphasised on the significant step-up in enforcement activity from 2014 to 2024, with 5,113 new PMLA investigations being initiated, averaging more than 500 cases per year.

Building on this momentum, Navin noted that in the Financial Year 2024-25, a total of 775 new PMLA investigations were launched, 333 prosecution complaints were filed, leading to 34 individual convictions.

During this period, Navin said that ED has issued 461 provisional attachment orders valued at Rs. 30,036 crore – a 44 per cent increase in the number of attachments and a striking 141 per cent rise in their total value compared to the previous year. As on 31st March, 2025, the total value of assets under provisional attachment stood at Rs 1,54,594 crore.

Navin also apprised the gathering that with the approval of the courts, restitution of Rs 15,261 crore was done in 30 cases during FY 2024-25 and this process is likely to accelerate in FY 2025-26.

“The ED has filed 333 prosecution complaints last year, taking the total cases under various stage of trial to 1,739 as on 31st March, 2025; and of the 47 cases decided so far, there have been only 3 acquittals, yielding a commendable conviction rate of 93.6 per cent,” Navin added.

In his address on the occasion, S.V. Raju highlighted the growing use of cryptocurrency and hawala traders as tools for Money Laundering (ML) and urged the ED officers to stay abreast of the changing ML scenarios and elaborated on the tools under PMLA.

On the occasion, Chaudhary also released the Annual Report for FY 2024-25.

The Minister also stated that as India is marching towards achieving the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, the nature of the economy and economic activities will also change, and complexities will also increase, which might result in the evolution of the nature of economic crimes. He emphasised the critical role the Enforcement Directorate will play in the future.

--IANS

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