The Enforcement Directorate (ED) released new data that, among other things, claimed that its conviction rate is actually 96 percent in an effort to refute accusations that it is specifically targeting opposition leaders and using excessive coercive action out of proportion to its low conviction rate, The Indian Express reported.
Also, it was stated that less than 3 percent of instances involved the accusation of current or former political officials, and that raids were only conducted in roughly 9 percent of cases.
The ED has based its data on convictions on the observation that, of the 25 cases that have gone to trial so far, 24 have resulted in convictions, with 45 people being found guilty of money laundering.
Data show that the ED has recorded 5,906 cases since 2005, when the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) entered into force (till January 31, 2023). Yet, only 1,142 cases (19%) have prosecution complaints (the legal equivalent of a chargesheet) filed. However, just 62% of all attached assets have had their status verified by the adjudicating authority, with the other 28% still awaiting a decision.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) claims a conviction rate of 94 percent, while the CBI claims a conviction rate of 68 percen, making the ED the best-performing central agency according to this claim.
The data reveals that just 531 cases, or 8.99 percent of the total cases, had searches done. There were 4,954 search operations in total, with each search operation averaging around 10 searches.
According to the ED, it has filed 176 money laundering cases against current and past MPs, MLAs, and MLCs, which equates to 2.98 percent of all cases.
According to ED data, the organisation had detained 513 individuals as of January 31 and had attached 1,919 provisional attachment orders to properties valued at more than Rs 1.15 lakh crore. Almost Rs 15,600 crore worth of these assets have already been seized.
