Govt recovered Rs 18,000 from Mallya, Nirav, Choksi

Banks have recovered Rs18,000 crore from fugitives Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. The government on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court, which is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the wide scope of powers given to the Enforcement Directorate in connection to money laundering cases. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Justice AM Khanwilkar-led bench the value of cases registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Mallya, Modi, and Choksi is now Rs 67,000 crore.

A very small number of cases are being taken up for investigation under the PMLA in India,  compared to the situation abroad, the Centre told a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar. As examples, the Centre cited the UK, where 7,900 cases have been filed under the Money Laundering Act in a year, the US (1,532), China (4,691), Austria (1,036), Hongkong (1,823), Belgium (1,862) and Russia (2,764). In India, 4,700 PMLA cases are being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate and the total proceeds of crimes pending before the court amounts to Rs 67,000 crore, the Centre said.

Over the past two weeks, arguments have been made by a number of senior lawyers, including Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Mukul Rohatgi, Sidharth Luthra, and Amit Desai, on the potential misuse of provisions introduced by way of various amendments, most recently in 2019.The law has been criticised on a number of points, including stringent bail conditions, arrests without an ECIR (akin to a FIR), non-communication of grounds of arrest. Concerns have also been raised over statements made by the accused during investigation being used as evidence in a trial.