New Delhi (The Hawk): The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) provisions have been used by the Directorate of Enforcement to open investigations in about 87 cases over the past five years involving MPs, MLAs, and MLCs (both former and sitting).
In a written response submitted to the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary stated that 59 Prosecution Complaints (PCs) have been brought before the Special Court (PMLA) during the past five years and are currently in various stages of litigation.
The PMLA's provisions went into effect on July 1, 2005, and as of now, the Special Court, PMLA has only finished trying 36 cases; the other 1,082 cases are still in various phases of the trial process.
The response went on to say that just 21 of the 36 decided cases in which the money laundering offence was tried on the merits had resulted in the conviction of 31 accused people.
Due to the predicate offence being quashed as a result of the charge sheet submitted by the predicate agency, the trial of the money laundering offence in the other 15 cases could not continue on the merits. However, in these circumstances, appealing to the top courts has been favoured.
(Inputs from Agencies)