Enforcement Directorate प्रवर्तन निदेशालय | |
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![]() Official emblem of Enforcement Directorate | |
Abbreviation | ED |
Agency overview | |
Formed | 1 May 1956 |
Legal personality | Government agency |
Jurisdictional structure | |
Operations jurisdiction | India |
Governing body | Government of India |
Constituting instruments | |
Operational structure | |
Headquarters | New Delhi, India |
Minister responsible | |
Agency executive |
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Parent agency | Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance |
Website | |
enforcementdirectorate |
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The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) is a law enforcement agency and economic intelligence agency responsible for enforcing economic laws and fighting economic crime in India. [1] It is part of the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government Of India. [2] It is composed of officers from the Indian Revenue Service, Indian Police Service, and the Indian Administrative Service as well as promoted officers from its own cadre.
The origin of the ED goes back to 1 May 1956, when an "enforcement unit" was formed, within the Department of Economic Affairs, for handling Exchange Control Laws violations under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947. In 1957, the unit was renamed as the Enforcement Directorate. [3] Sanjay Kumar Mishra former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, New Delhi was appointed as ED chief in the rank of Secretary to Government of India, from October 2018. [4]
The prime objective of the Enforcement Directorate is the enforcement of two key Acts [5] of the Government of India namely, the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), and The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA).
The Directorate of Enforcement, with its headquarters at New Delhi, is headed by the director of enforcement. There are five regional offices at Mumbai, Chennai, Chandigarh, Kolkata, and Delhi headed by special directors of enforcement.
Zonal offices of the directorate are at Pune, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Kochi, Delhi, Panaji, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Patna, and Srinagar. [6] These are headed by a joint director.
The directorate has sub-zonal offices at Mangaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Kozhikode, Indore, Madurai, Nagpur, Allahabad, Raipur, Dehradun, Ranchi, Surat, Shimla, Vishakhapatnam and Jammu [6] which are headed by a deputy director.
For the trial of an offence punishable under section 4 of PMLA, the Central Government (in consultation with the chief justice of the High Court), designates one or more Sessions Court as Special Court(s). The court is also called "PMLA Court". Any appeal against any order passed by PMLA court can directly be filed in the High Court for that jurisdiction. [7]
In July 2022, according to data shared by the union government in Parliament, only 23 people have been convicted in 5,422 cases registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) [8] in the 17 years after the law was passed, which is a conviction rate of less than 0.5%. The cases by ED have gone up six times in Modi's second term, which led to accusations by opposition parties stating that ED is being misused by the BJP for their political ends. [9]
There are major law and act of ED: [10]
Foreign Exchange Management Act , 1999 ( FEMA )
Prevention Of Money Laundering Act , 2002 ( PMLA )
Fugitive Economic Offenders Act , 2018 ( FEOA )
Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (COFEPOSA)
Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions with varying definitions. It is usually a key operation of organized crime.
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The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) is an Indian intelligence agency. It is India's apex anti-smuggling intelligence, investigations and operations agency.
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Financial crime is crime committed against property, involving the unlawful conversion of the ownership of property to one's own personal use and benefit. Financial crimes may involve fraud ; theft; scams or confidence tricks; tax evasion; bribery; sedition; embezzlement; identity theft; money laundering; and forgery and counterfeiting, including the production of counterfeit money and consumer goods.
The Pakistani intelligence community comprises the various intelligence agencies of Pakistan that work internally and externally to manage, research and collect intelligence necessary for national security. Consolidated intelligence organizations include the personnel and members of the intelligence agencies, military intelligence, and civilian intelligence and analysis directorates operationalized under the executive ministries of the government of Pakistan.
Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted by the NDA government to prevent money-laundering and to provide for confiscation of property derived from money-laundering. PMLA and the Rules notified there under came into force with effect from July 1, 2005. The Act and Rules notified there under impose obligation on banking companies, financial institutions and intermediaries to verify identity of clients, maintain records and furnish information in prescribed form to Financial Intelligence Unit - India (FIU-IND).
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is the primary counter-terrorist task force of India. The agency is empowered to deal with the investigation of terror related crimes across states without special permission from the states under written proclamation from the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Agency came into existence with the enactment of the National Investigation Agency Act 2008 by the Parliament of India on 31 December 2008, which was passed after the deadly 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai. Such an attack revealed the failure of intelligence and ability to track such activities by existing agencies in India, hence the government of India realized the need of a specific body to deal with terror related activities in India, thereby establishing the NIA. Headquartered in New Delhi, the NIA has branches in Hyderabad, Guwahati, Kochi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Kolkata, Raipur, Jammu, Chandigarh, Ranchi, Chennai and Imphal. It maintains the NIA Most Wanted list.
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The Investigation Division of the CBDT, abbreviated as Inv-CBDT, is the revenue enforcement agency of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, Government of India. It functions under the Department of Revenue in the Union Ministry of Finance and is concerned with the collection and administration of, as well as enforcement and prosecution of cases related to, the various direct taxes accruing to the Union Government.
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