Banks have been reimbursed Rs.18,000 crore in the case of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court on Wednesday February 23.
Mehta, representing the Centre, presented before a court presided over by Justice AM Khanwilkar that the total proceeds of offenses in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases pending in the top court stands at 67,000 crore rupees.
He further added that, as on date, the Compliance Department is investigating 4,700 cases and the number of cases opened for investigation each year over the past 5 years ranges from 111 cases in 2015-16 to 981 in 2020-21. . Mehta filed in court that Rs 18,000 crore was returned to banks in the case of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.
The top court is hearing a handful of petitions, challenging the wide range of powers available to the directorate of enforcement (ED) for search, seize, investigation and attachments of proceeds of crime under the law.
Mehta appeared before the tribunal, which also included Judges Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar, that during the last five years (2016-17 to 2020-21), only 2086 cases were investigated by the PMLA on FIR registered of around 33 lakh for predicated offenses by police and other enforcement agencies.
He added that “a very small number of cases are investigated under the PMLA compared to the annual number of cases under the UK Money Laundering Act ( 7,900), the United States (1,532), China (4,691), Austria (1,036), Hong Kong (1,823), Belgium (1,862) and Russia (2,764).
Mehta pointed out that anti-money laundering measures have clearly left embryos for drug or terrorism related crimes and have gone beyond that. “Furthermore, anti-money laundering efforts have always advocated including the widest range of predicated offenses in national laws,” he added.
Over the past few weeks, a battery of senior advocates including Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Mukul Rohatgi, Sidharth Luthra, Amit Desai and others have filed submissions with the top Court on various aspects relating to possible misuse of PMLA provisions introduced by reforming the law.
The law has been criticized on a number of points: stringent bail conditions, failure to disclose reasons for arrest, arrest of persons without supply of ECIR (similar to FIR), broad definitions of money laundering and proceeds of crime, and statements made by the accused during the investigation admitted as evidence during the trial.
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