Enforcement Directorate is India’s frontline agency to tackle foreign exchange violations and money laundering. Karnal Singh, Director, ED, who was earlier head of the Special Cell of the Delhi Police combating terrorist networks, spoke to Pradeep Thakur on white collar crime:
ED probes both foreign exchange violations and money laundering, but are we seeing more domestic cases being booked?
We are pursuing both Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases with the same rigour. In the last three years we have registered more FEMA cases than PMLA. The reason any such impression goes out is because FEMA is a civil case and PMLA is criminal case where we arrest an accused and attach his or her properties. Therefore, the actions taken under PMLA are more visible. In the last three years alone the value of provisional property attachments made under PMLA has crossed over Rs 16,900 crore.