• Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary presided over the 69th Foundation Day of Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in New Delhi on May 1. The minister also released the Annual Report for FY 2024-25.

• Rahul Navin, ED director, noted that in the financial year 2024-25, as many as 775 new PMLA investigations were launched, and 333 prosecution complaints were filed, leading to 34 individual convictions.

• ED has issued 461 provisional attachment orders valued at Rs 30,036 crore — a 44 per cent increase in the number of attachments and a striking 141 per cent rise in their total value compared to the previous year. 

• As on March 31, 2025, the total value of assets under provisional attachment stood at Rs 1,54,594 crore.

Enforcement Directorate

• The ED functions under the Union finance ministry and it enforces the criminal provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act that was brought by the Modi government in 2018, and the civil sections of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

• The ED was first established on May 1, 1956 as ‘Enforcement Unit’ under  Department of Economic Affairs for dealing cases of violations on exchange control laws under Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947 (FERA).

• In 1957, this unit was renamed as ‘Enforcement Directorate’. The administrative control of ED was transferred from department of economic affairs to department of revenue in 1960.

• The ED is headed by the director, who is not below the rank of additional secretary to the government of India.

• There are five regional offices located at Chandigarh (Northern Region), Chennai (Southern Region), Delhi (Central Region), Kolkata (Eastern Region) and Mumbai (Western Region), each headed by a special director. In addition, there is a Headquarters Investigation Unit (HIU) headed by a special director. There are zonal offices and sub-zonal offices.

• The ED’s core functions collectively contribute to a robust economic security framework. By tackling money laundering, the agency curbs the financing of terrorism and organised crime. 

• ED has emerged as a pivotal establishment in India’s fight against financial crimes. 

• Traditionally tasked with enforcing exchange laws and fighting money laundering, the ED’s mandate has grown substantially both in scope and impact. 

• This evolution reflects not only the dynamic nature of financial crime in the digital age but also the institution’s enhanced capabilities and the mounting public trust in its operations.

Functioning of the ED and Acts

Prevention of Money Laundering Act

• The primary function of the Enforcement Directorate is administration and enforcement of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) including investigation into the offence of money laundering, filing of prosecution complaint before the special court against the accused, attachment and confiscation of property involved in money laundering and carrying out international cooperation with competent authorities in foreign jurisdictions. 

• The ED has the sole jurisdiction to investigate the money laundering cases and the law enforcement agencies having the responsibility to investigate a “predicate offence”, including the state police authorities, are required to make a reference to the ED to examine the money laundering aspect of the criminal activity. 

• In certain cases, the fact that a predicate offence has taken place is also obtained from publicly available sources or on receipt of information from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). 

• On receipt of the reference or information and after making certain preliminary verification, the ED registers a case and initiates investigation (Enforcement Case Information Report or the ECIR) following a risk based approach taking into consideration factors such as materiality of the offence, transnational nature of the crime, complexity of the case, the larger public interest and the availability of resources.

Foreign Exchange Management Act

• The ED is  entrusted with the implementation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) whose object is to consolidate and amend the law relating to foreign exchange for facilitating external trade and payments and for promoting the orderly development and maintenance of foreign exchange resources. 

• The ED initiates investigations and issues Show Cause Notices (SCN) in cases where the allegations of contravention of provisions under FEMA are noticed. These SCNs upon adjudication result in imposition of penalty as well as confiscation of currency/property involved.

Fugitive Economic Offenders Act

• The Enforcement Directorate has also recently been entrusted with the implementation of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA). 

• The FEOA provides for the measures to deter the fugitive economic offenders from evading the process of law in India by staying outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts and to preserve the sanctity of the rule of law in India. 

• Action under the said Act can be initiated against economic offenders who have left India so as to avoid criminal prosecution or who, being abroad, refuse to return to India to face criminal prosecution and the total amount involved in the economic offence is more than Rs 100 crore.

Asset Recovery and Restitution

• A critical extension of its investigative mandate, ED identifies, attaches, and confiscates proceeds of crime to deprive and disrupt the financial incentives of criminal activity. 

• Under PMLA, attached assets are managed to prevent depreciation or encroachment, with a renewed emphasis on restitution. The agency strives to return recovered funds to victims — such as defrauded investors or banks with non-performing assets (NPAs) — thereby restoring public trust in the financial system.

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