Digital Desk: The Centre informed the Court on Thursday that investigations into crime and Naxal funding have resulted in the
discovery of Rs 1,249 crore in criminal proceeds and the connection of 256 assets worth Rs 982 crore, as well as the submission of 37 prosecution concerns and the guilty verdict of two terrorists under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
"Among the attached properties are those of Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed (a UN-designated terrorist), Syed Salahuddin (the head of Hijbul Mujahideen), and Iqbal Mirchi (an international narcotics smuggler involved in the Mumbai blasts)," Solicitor General Tushar Mehta briefed the three-judge bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari, and C T Raviku.
As of now, proceeds of crime worth Rs 98,368 crore have been identified and provisionally attached under the Act, according to Mehta.
The Adjudicating Authority verified Rs 55,899 crore in proceeds. A large portion of the connected proceeds is being adjudicated, he claimed, noting that proceeds worth Rs 853.16 crore have already been forfeited to the Central Government on the instructions of the judicial authority.
The court is now examining a slew of petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) powers underneath the PMLA to investigate, seize, investigate, and attach criminal proceeds.
Quoting statistics, Mehta informed the jury on Wednesday that only a "very handful of cases are being taken up for inquiry" in India compared to countries like the Uk, the U.s., China, Austria, Hong Kong, Belgium, and Russia.
He clarified on Thursday that India's low case registration rate is "due to the robust mechanism for risk-based selection of cases for investigation."
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) suggestions, according to Mehta, "provide no threshold for selecting cases for investigation under the PMLA, while the ED is focusing on cases involving high-value proceeds of crime and serious predicate offences involving terror financing, illicit drugs, corruption, and offences involving national security, among other things."
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