New Delhi, March 17 (IANS) Special Courts for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases have delivered judgments on merits in connection with the issue of money laundering in 59 cases, of which conviction orders have been passed in 56 cases, convicting 124 accused in the cases filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during the five-year period from April 1, 2021 to Feb 28, 2026.

There are a few cases where the accused have been acquitted or discharged due to acquittal or discharge in the predicate offence case or other reasons without considering the ED case, according to information tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday.

During this period, the ED has arrested 903 persons under the provisions of the PMLA, 2002, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in written reply to a query in the Rajya Sabha.

The ED has also recorded 4,377 Enforcement Case Information Reports (ECIRs) under the provisions of PMLA, 2002.

During the same period, in 1,245 cases, charge sheets have been filed before the Special PMLA Courts praying for conviction of accused persons for money laundering offences and confiscation of proceeds of crime involved.

In these cases, 447 supplementary charge sheets have also been filed before the Special Courts dealing with PMLA cases, Minister Pankaj Chaudhary added.

After the amendment in PMLA with effect from August 1, 2019, a closure report is required to be filed by ED before the Special PMLA Court, in cases where no offence of money laundering is made out.

“Since then, the ED has filed closure report before the concerned Special Court in 93 cases where no offence of money laundering is made out due to various reasons such as closure of schedule offence case, cases where the predicate offence court finds no offence committed related to schedule offence defined under PMLA, quashing of predicate offence case, etc,” the Minister added.

–IANS

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