Rs 18,000 crore recovered from Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta went on to say that the Directorate of Enforcement is now investigating 4,700 instances and that the number of cases taken up for inquiry each year over the previous five years has ranged from 111 in 2015-16 to 981 in 2020-21.
FollowThe Centre informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday that Rs 18,000 crore had been repaid to the banks in the Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi cases. Representing the Centre, Solicitor General, Tushar Mehta, told a bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar that the proceeds of crime in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) are currently before the Supreme Court amount to Rs 67,000 crore.
He went on to say that the Directorate of Enforcement is now investigating 4,700 instances and that the number of cases taken up for inquiry each year over the previous five years has ranged from 111 in 2015-16 to 981 in 2020-21. Mehta highlighted the data to demonstrate how a big quantity of money is still stranded and not moving forward owing to the protection afforded by the courts.
In December, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that as of July, banks have collected Rs 13,109 crore from the sale of the three's assets. Several top counsels, including Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, and Mukul Rohatgi, have filed representations to the Supreme Court recently, pointing to potential misuse of the recently amended Prevention of Money Laundering Act, or PMLA.
The Supreme Court is considering a slew of petitions contesting the broad range of powers granted to the Directorate of Enforcement under the statute for search, seizure, investigation, and attachment of profits of crime.
The law has been criticised in several ways, including stringent bail conditions, non-communication of arrest grounds, arrest of people without an ECIR (similar to a FIR), broad definitions of money laundering and proceeds of crime, and statements made by the accused during the investigation that are admissible as evidence during the trial.
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