The Centre on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that Rs 18,000 crore have been returned to the banks in the case of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, on behalf of the Centre, submitted before a bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar that of the total proceeds of Rs 67,000 crore in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases. Rs 18,000 crore have been returned to the banks.
He further added that as on date 4,700 cases are being investigated by the Directorate of Enforcement and the number of the cases taken up for investigation each year in the last 5 years varies from 111 cases in 2015-16 to 981 in 2020-21.
The top court is hearing a clutch of petitions, challenging the wide scope of powers available to the directorate of enforcement (ED) for search, seizure, investigation, and attachment of proceeds of crime under the law.
Mehta submitted before the bench, also comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C.T. Ravikumar, that during the last five years (2016-17 to 2020-21), only 2,086 cases were taken up for investigation under the PMLA out of registration of FIR of approximately 33 lakh for predicate offences by the police and other enforcement agencies.
“Very small number of cases are being taken up for investigation under the PMLA as compared to annual registration of the cases under the Money Laundering Act in the UK (7,900), the US (1,532), China (4,691), Austria (1,036), Hongkong (1,823), Belgium (1,862) and Russia (2,764),” he added.