Images are for representative purposes only. |Photo source: PTI
Officials said the Enforcement Bureau has designated assets worth about Rs 1.5 billion that will be restored to real estate, Ponzi and other victims of fraud in the current fiscal year.
The federal investigative agency has begun to initiate the provision to restore property, under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, since last year to ensure that legal owners and legal claimants are deceived by financial crimes, the documents show.
Until date, according to records ptiUnder this provision, assets worth Rs 31,951 crore have been restored.
Among them, Rs 15,201.65 crore in assets in three money laundering cases related to the fugitive economic offenders Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, in addition to the case of the National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL), were restored.
Officials said that in June last year, ED Supervisor Rahul Navin conducted a comprehensive review of all money laundering cases that could restore victims of fraud, and the agency has since obtained a court order in 32 cases after filing an application to initiate compensation proceedings.
According to the data, between August 2024 and April this year, ED recovered Rs 152,611.5 billion (FY2024-25) and Rs 14,888 crore in assets (2025-26) during the current fiscal period (2025-26).
Officials said the ED Chief recently issued instructions to all districts of the agency to “actively deal with cases of compensation for assets worth Rs 1.5 crore in fiscal year 2025-26”.
Investigation officers and their supervisory officers are asked to file a special application to the competent court and follow them up until the final order is issued. More situations that can be restored are being worked on, officials said.
Under the existing plan of the Preventive Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the process of restoring innocent investors’ assets can be ordered by a valid court even before the case is completed. ED is required to file fees with the court and shall file charges against the defendant before the indemnity lawsuit is initiated.
The recovery or recovery of assets may be carried out under Article 8(8) of the PMLA, which states that if the central government (by ED) confiscates property (by ED), the Special Court has the right to restore the confiscated property directly to the claimant who owns the legal property and suffers quantifiable losses due to the monetary crime.
The court must determine that the property was originally obtained by illegal means but ultimately belonged to an innocent party.
“These provisions give the Emergency Department the ability to act quickly to ensure that legitimate claimants regain control of their assets before the legal process is over,” said an official studying the cases.
He said the said section is provided in the PMLA to quickly mitigate those who have lost their hard-earned money in criminal cases, such as bank fraud, Ponzi schemes, investment fraud or builders’ non-delivery to promised homes.
According to the procedure, if, at any later stage of the lawsuit or after the end of the trial, the claimant demanding compensation must execute the bond for a refund or repayment amount.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in the campaign for the 2024 election that his administration will work to “refund the money from the poor”.
“The Prime Minister of India has always stressed the urgent need to recover and return funds misappropriated from poor and innocent citizens of the country and has repeatedly stressed that the funds must be put into practice by fraudulent means and that those who have been deceived in the Ponzi scheme must be properly restored.”
publishing – April 21, 2025, 17:00 pm IST
