ED raids up 27x in 2014-2022 compared to 2004-14: Govt

NEW DELHI: Raids carried out by the ED during 2014-2022 saw a nearly 27-fold increase to 3,010 as compared to 112 searches between 2004 and 2014, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
Junior minister for finance Pankaj Chaudhary told the RS in a written reply that the increased number of searches were conducted "in order to dispose of pending investigation in old cases and to complete investigation in new cases in a time- bound manner under the PMLA" and that complex investigations in cases, which have multiple accused, require multiple searches leading to increase in the numbers of such actions.
The Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was enacted in 2002, but implemented from July 1, 2005.
The Congress-led UPA was in power between 2004 and 2014 while the BJP-led NDA government came into power from the middle of 2014. Chaudhary was responding to a question from Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi who asked whether ED raids have gone up almost 90% from 2014 and if the raid-to-complaint ratio of ED cases has gone down drastically from 2014.
"During the first nine years of administration of PMLA, a small number of searches (112) were carried out which resulted in attachment of proceeds of crime of Rs 5,346.16 crore and filing of 104 prosecution complaints... During the period, trial court has not convicted any accused for the offence of money laundering or confiscated any property under PMLA," he said while providing figures for the period from 2004-05 to 2013-14 fiscals.
Chaudhary then provided data for the eight financial years between 2014-15 and 2021-22. "In order to dispose of pending investigation in old cases and to complete investigation in new cases in a time-bound manner under the PMLA, 3,010 searches were conducted during the last eight years which resulted in attachment of proceeds of crime of about Rs 99,356 crore, filing of prosecution complaint in 888 cases and conviction of 23 accused persons/entities and confiscation of proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 869.3 crore," the minister said. pti