New Delhi : Be it the National Herald case or the Patra Chawl scam, in which Sanjay Raut has been arrested. The name of the agency that raises the headache from Congress to Shiv Sena is Enforcement Directorate (ED). The cases of money laundering i.e. misappropriation of money come under the Money Laundering Act. And this gives power to the ED as well.
The ED is a powerful agency under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. It has the power to take stringent action in corruption cases. Recently, the Supreme Court had also upheld the authority of the agency. SC had said that it has the power to confiscate the recovered money and make arrests.
It is clear that the ED’s action is going to continue in the coming days as well. In such a situation, the question is why the CBI and the Income Tax Department, which was the first victim of the opposition attacks, are not as active as the ED. Actually the reason for this is that the CBI has been formed under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946. In such a situation, it has to take permission from the concerned government for investigation in any state. The CBI can handle investigation in any state only if the government of that state has made such a recommendation or has been ordered by the High Court or Supreme Court.
Apart from this, the Income Tax Department is also less active in such matters. The reason for this is that under the powers given to the Income Tax Department, severe punishment cannot be given. The Income Tax Department has the only power to impose provisions like penalty. That’s why, ED is handling most of the corruption cases. The Enforcement Directorate has been given major powers under the Money Laundering Act. This agency can arrest any accused and in case of arrest under this Act, the accused has to fulfil two conditions for bail.
The condition of bail is very strict under PMLA
The first condition is that he should prove that he is not guilty in this case. Apart from this, he has to assure that if he comes out, then there will be no danger to the evidence and witnesses. Apart from this, there is also a provision to consider the statement given by the accused before the ED officer as evidence in the court. This is the reason why senior leaders like Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh are in jail for many months. Apart from this, Sanjay Raut has been arrested by the agency. Talking about the existence of the ED, it was formed only in 1957, but it got its power only after the introduction of the Money Laundering Act in 2005. Leaders like P Chidambaram, DK Shivakumar have also been victims of ED.
ED registered 5400 cases in 17 years, only 23 proved guilty
The conviction rate of the accused in the cases registered by the ED is very low. In the last 17 years, the ED has registered 5,400 cases of money laundering. But so far only 23 people have been convicted under this. Often questions have been raised about the conviction rate under the ED being just 0.5 per cent. However, there is a steady increase in the rate of raids.
