Bank, realty, corporate scams have declined in India: ED director

New Delhi, May 1 (PTI) ED Director Rahul Navin on Friday asserted that financial crimes like bank frauds, corporate scams and cheating in the real estate sector have seen a “visible decline” due to “sustained” action by investigative agencies and some “landmark” government initiatives.

Delivering his address during the 70th ‘ED Day’ event here, the agency chief said the current criminal landscape was “defined” by cryptocurrency fraud, cyber-enabled financial crimes, terror financing, anti-national activities and narcotics trafficking.

These are the agency’s “priority” areas of investigation, he added.

Navin said the ED filed an enhanced number of charge sheets during the last financial year 2025-26 and was undertaking enhanced investigation into

“complex” money laundering cases as a result of “deliberate, sustained, and intelligence-driven effort”.

“A few years ago, our enforcement work was centred predominantly on bank frauds, large corporate scams, and real estate frauds.

“Sustained action by investigative agencies, complemented by landmark government initiatives such as the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and the Real Estate Regulation and Development Act, has brought about a visible decline in such offences.” “Today, the criminal landscape is defined by cryptocurrency fraud, cyber-enabled financial crimes, terror financing, anti-national activities, and narcotics trafficking,” he said.

Calling money laundering investigations amongst the “most complex”, Navin said these probes frequently span multiple jurisdictions, involve intricate cross-border transactions and layered financial structures, and demand engagement with rapidly evolving technologies.

The ED chief added that the agency has accorded “high priority” to narcotics-related investigations. He said the ED’s prompt and focused response in the Red Fort blast case (of November 2025) was a “testament” to its “sharpened vigilance on money laundering dimensions of terrorism and espionage”.

The ED arrested Jawad Ahmed Siddiqui, chairman of Faridabad-based Al Falah University, last year as part of this investigation and filed a chargesheet against him and some others.

This PMLA case is based on two Delhi Police FIRs alleging that the varsity cheated students using false accreditation.

Navin said the ED filed 812 charge sheets (called prosecution complaints) including 155 supplementary charge sheets before the courts under the anti-money laundering law during the last fiscal which was “nearly twice” the numbers filed during the previous comparative fiscal.

He said that out of all the charge sheets ever filed by the agency (PMLA was implemented from 2005), over 41 per cent were filed in just the last two years.

The director also said that the current conviction rate of the ED was 94 per cent and the agency was confident that out of more than 2,400 cases pending before trial courts currently, most will result in the conviction of the accused and confiscation of the proceeds of crime.

“Of course, there are legal challenges before the courts. The most important is whether the trial in money laundering cases should pause until the trial in the predicate offence gets concluded or continue on a standalone basis, in consonance with international standards and FATF guidelines,” he said, adding the matter was under consideration by the Supreme Court.

The director added that the agency has taken “several” measures to enhance transparency and accountability in its functioning and the investigative framework has been “further strengthened” through a “complete” revamp which includes the institutionalisation of Risk Assessment Management Committee (RAMC) mechanisms.

He said directions have been issued to ensure that “every action of junior officers is subject to appropriate levels of supervisory review” and that a QR-based system to verify summons is in practice in the organisation.

In the past, some ED officials were caught in bribery cases and unscrupulous elements issued fake summons including in ‘digital arrest’ cases.

According to Navin, the ED also attached assets of Rs 81,422 crore during the last fiscal, an increase of 170 per cent over the previous year.

The total provisional attachments, undertaken to deprive the accused from enjoying the fruits of their allegedly illicitly earned assets, stand at Rs 2,36,017 crore.

The PMLA was enacted in 2002 and implemented from 2005.

The agency, Navin said, is also utilising a provision available in the PMLA to restitute or restore assets to the victims of financial crimes and properties worth Rs 63,142 crore were handed over to the rightful owners like banks, investors and homebuyers till now.

“Behind every one of these figures is a family or institution that had lost hope of recovering what was rightfully theirs,” Navin said.

He said India’s engagement in global anti-money laundering and combating terrorist financing efforts has also grown significantly, reflecting the country’s growing “authority” and “credibility”.

The director informed that cases registered by the ED under the criminal provisions of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) – which was abolished about 25 years ago when the civil Foreign Exchange Management Act was introduced – will be disposed of in the next few months.

“Financial crime will continue to evolve. Criminals will continue to exploit new technologies, new jurisdictions, and new vulnerabilities.

“So we will be adapting, innovating, and engaging with our counterparts across the country and around the world to stay ahead,” Navin said.

The federal probe agency was established on May 1, 1956. It implements two criminal laws — The Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA) — apart from the civil provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). PTI NES ZMN