The Center on Wednesday knowledgeable the Supreme Court that banks obtained again Rs 18,000 crore from absconding businessmen Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi after proceedings had been initiated below the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta advised a three-judge bench led by Justice AM Khanwilkar that 4,700 instances are being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), and that solely 313 folks have been arrested for the alleged offenses for the reason that enactment of the Act.
He additionally stated orders towards coercive motion given by varied courts had held up as a lot as Rs 67,000 crore from being recovered.
The bench, additionally comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar, is listening to a clutch of petitions difficult the constitutional validity of the scope of powers accessible to the ED below the PMLA for search, seizure, investigation, and attachment of proceeds of crime.
Citing statistics, Mehta stated that solely a “very small number of cases are being taken up for investigation” in India as in comparison with nations just like the United Kingdom, the United States, China, Austria, Hongkong, Belgium and Russia.
Mehta contended that PMLA has inbuilt provisions to make sure that it’s consistent with constitutional pointers.
“The validity of the PMLA, 2002 shall have to be judged from the antecedent events which took place globally,” he stated, including that the courtroom, whereas deciding on constitutionality, must apply a
completely different threshold if worldwide ramifications had been to be stored in thoughts.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
