What is the Enforcement Directorate? What are its recent high profile cases?
File photo of the Enforcement Directorate logo.
India's central agency the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has made headlines in recent weeks just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections which start on April 19. On Thursday (Mar 21) night, the ED arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection with the Delhi excise policy case. Kejriwal's arrest comes nearly a week after Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha was arrested in the same case.
Apart from Kejriwal, the ED has also arrested top AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh in the case. The ED also arrested former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren in a separate case related to an alleged land scam.
So what is the ED, what are its functions, and what are the recent high-profile cases it has been involved in? Here's a look...
A brief history
The ED is a multi-disciplinary organisation mandated with the investigation of economic crimes and violations of foreign exchange laws. According to ED's website, the origins of this unit go back to May 1, 1956, when an ‘Enforcement Unit’ was formed in the Department of Economic Affairs for handling exchange control lawviolations under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947 (FERA ’47).
In 1957, the unit was renamed the Enforcement Directorate. Three years later, the administrative control of the ED was transferred from the Department of Economic Affairs to the Department of Revenue.
"With the passage of time, FERA’ 47 was repealed and replaced by FERA, 1973. For a short period of 04 years (1973 – 1977), the Directorate remained under the administrative jurisdiction of the Department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms," the website states.
"With the onset of the process of economic liberalization, FERA, 1973, which was a regulatory law, was repealed and in its place, a new law viz. the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) came into operation w.e.f. 1st June 2000," it adds.
Due to the increase in the number of cases relating to economic offenders taking shelter in foreign countries, the government passed the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA) and ED is entrusted with its enforcement with effect from April 21, 2018.
Functions
The ED investigates offences of money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws. It performs its functions by enforcing the following acts - The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), The Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA), The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA), The Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973 (FERA), and Sponsoring agency under COFEPOSA.
The agency states that its core values are integrity, accountability, commitment, excellence, and impartiality.
The ED's other high-profile cases include the National Herald case in which Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, and others have been accused of financial irregularities.
In 2022, the ED raided the premises of property owned by then-Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi's nephew Bhupinder Singh Honey in an alleged illegal sand mining case.
Also in 2022, then-Delhi health minister Satyendra Jain was arrested by the ED after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered an FIR against him in a disproportionate assets case in 2017.
A look at the recent high-profile cases
The ED is currently cracking down on the AAP in connection with the Delhi excise policy case. It arrested Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday night, while BRS leader K Kavitha was arrested last week. Top AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh have also been arrested in the case.
The ED is seeking a 10-day custody of Kejriwal.
In the Indian state of Jharkhand, the ED arrested former chief minister Hemant Soren in connection with a money laundering case related to an alleged land scam. Soren's judicial custody has been extended till April 4.
Soren was arrested on January 31. He tendered his resignation as CM to the Jharkhand Governor following his questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the alleged land scam case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.