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ED seeks Isro’s aid to monitor assets attached in PMLA cases
The federal anti-money laundering probe agency has also requested the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Vishakhapatnam, to develop a software to process satellite images of attached properties.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has attached properties worth over ₹1 lakh crore till date, has sought the assistance of National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to get satellite images of these properties so that the agency can monitor them and ensure no encroachment or unauthorised construction takes place, people familiar with the development said.
The federal anti-money laundering probe agency has also requested the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Vishakhapatnam, to develop a software to process satellite images of attached properties.
“Several properties attached by us are located in remote areas, where there are chances of suspects making changes or misusing them. Also, court proceedings sometimes take years and everyday physical monitoring of all immovable attached assets is impossible,” said an officer, who didn’t want to be named. “So, we have approached NRSC to provide satellite images of the immovable assets. Besides, BARC has been requested to create a software for processing and maintaining these images. The idea is to monitor these assets at regular intervals.”
The ED has, under its control, hundreds of immovable assets across the country, including farming land, factories, windmills, malls, residential and industrial plots and hospitals belonging to suspects investigated under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and attached under section 5 (1) of the act, but it has limited staff to regularly monitor activities at these sites, according to a second officer, who also sought anonymity.
As on March 31, 2022, the value of movable and immovable assets attached by the ED is worth ₹104,702 crore through 1,739 provisional attachment orders issued by it in 5,422 PMLA cases. The details of exact number of immovable assets out of this amount is not known, but a majority of it is movable, like bank deposits, jewellery and bonds.
In several instances, especially factories or farms where there are production activities, the agency either itself sits on the management or appoints private companies or individuals to run operations. The gross income and any other monetary benefits in such cases are deposited with the ED. For instance, the agency had attached and managed fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi’s solar power plant in Ahmadnagar in Maharashtra and windmill in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.
The agency has also lately adopted a new approach where it has started restitution of attached properties to the banks, which helps it get rid of responsibility of managing these assets.
It has already restored assets worth ₹15,113.91 crore (out of attached assets worth ₹19,111.20 crore) belonging to three high-profile fugitives — Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi — to the banks. The total fraud amount involving the three fugitives is ₹22,585.83 crore.
“The ED has been trying to make systemic changes in its processes to streamline its work and create an effective anti-money laundering regime in the country,” the second officer said.
The agency is working on a software named CEDOS (Core ED Operations System), through which its officers will be able to access data of other agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), among others, to quickly identify potential financial irregularities as well as find linkages in ongoing money laundering probes, as reported by HT.
It has also asked the Centre to treble its strength from 2,100 officers to 6,000.
