New Delhi: The Union government has conceded that convictions in Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases registered by the enforcement directorate (ED), India’s premier agency to probe financial and economic crimes, has been abysmal, at less than 5% since 2019.
In its reply to unstarred questions raised by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Singh Surjewala, the minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary said that only 42 (4.6%) cases out of the 911 cases filed under the PMLA have resulted in convictions, while only 257 (28%) such cases have reached the trial stage between January 1, 2019 and October 21, 2024.
Minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary’s reply to unstarred questions raised by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Singh Surjewala on PMLA cases. Photo: Special Arrangement
The ED’s poor track record showed even in the number of pending cases. Chaudhary’s response in the Upper House said that 654 cases, or 71.7% of the total cases filed under the PMLA, remained pending.
The Union minister’s response echoes what the Opposition has been claiming for the last few years. The Opposition forces have alleged that the Union government has misused the ED and PMLA to target Opposition leaders and silence dissenters.
In 2022, The Indian Express had reported that there was a four-fold jump in ED cases against politicians since 2014, and that 95% of these cases were against Opposition leaders. The ED had then responded by saying that despite a large number of pending cases, its conviction rate in those cases which had reached the trial stage has been over 96%. However, the Opposition still pointed out a huge gap between the number of PMLA cases filed by the ED and those that could eventually reach the trial stage.
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As recently as August 2024, a Supreme Court bench raised questions about the poor “quality of prosecution and quality of evidence” presented by the ED after the government introduced amendments in the PMLA in 2022. In yet another startling report, The Indian Express showed that since 2014, charges against 23 out of the 25 Opposition leaders facing corruption probe were either dropped or their cases were put in cold storage after they joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Given such a poor conviction rate, the use of PMLA that makes getting bail extremely difficult in nearly all cases filed by the ED against Opposition leaders has come under scrutiny.
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Immediately after getting responses to his questions, Surjewala commented on the sharp uptick in the PMLA cases. “In the last 5 years under the NDA government, 911 cases were filed, while in the entire 10 years of the UPA [United Progressive Alliance] government, only 102 cases were filed. This shows a wholesome misuse of ED,” he said on X.
He further said that the “misuse of ED and PMLA cases and the massive witch-hunt” stood exposed.
Data presented earlier by the Union government showed that a total of 5297 cases have been registered under the PMLA from 2014 to 2024. Only 40 of these cases have seen convictions, and three have been acquitted.
