ED filed 193 cases against serving, ex-politicians; secured 2 convictions: Govt

The Enforcement Directorate ED registered a total of 193 cases against politicians including serving and former MPs and MLAs over the last 10 years and secured conviction in two of those the government has informed ParliamentMinister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said this in a written reply to question in the Rajya Sabha on TuesdayHe said the federal antimoney laundering agency has filed cases against politicians including existing and former MPs MLAs and MLCs as well as people affiliated with political parties but a statewise data of the same is not maintainedChaudhary said 193 cases were filed by the ED against this category of persons between April 2015 and February 2025The minister added that two cases one during the 201617 fiscal and another in 201920 led to convictions and there was no acquittal He did not mention the cases or the names of the accused in the replyHowever according to official records former Jharkhand minister Hari Narayan Rai was sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 5 lakh under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA in 2017 while another former minister from the state Anosh Ekka was sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment and slapped with a fine of Rs 2 crore in 2020Both were probed by the ED as part of a moneylaundering investigation against former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda It is not clear if the two convicted politicians had appealed against the sentences pronounced by special PMLA courts in RanchiAccording to the data the maximum number of 32 cases against former and serving legislators were filed by the ED during the 202223 fiscalThe ED probes financial crimes under two criminal laws the PMLA and the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act FEOA besides launching investigations under the civil provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act FEMAED takes up the cases for investigation based on credible evidencematerial and does not distinguish cases based on political affiliations religion or otherwise the minister said in his replyFurther the actions of ED are always open to judicial review he addedThe agency is accountable to different judicial fora like the Adjudicating Authority and Appellate Tribunal of the PMLA special courts high courts and the Supreme Court for the actions taken in the course of implementing the PMLA FEMA and FEOA Chaudhary saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever