What Happens To The Money Enforcement Directorate Seizes During Raids

Enforcement Directorate (ED) handles inspecting and taking legal action involving economic crimes, money laundering, corruption etc. There have been many instances where the ED has raided the premises of many politicians and officials and recovered cash and incriminating documents. Now, the question arises what happens to the cash recovered by the ED? As per reports, the probe agency is authorised to seize money, but it cannot retain the recovered cash. The agency deposits the money in the bank accounts of the government in the Reserve Bank of India or the State Bank of India.

When an agency like ED conducts a raid at someone’s house, they prepare a panchnama of all the belongings kept there. A panchnama is a document having legal bearing that records pieces of evidence and findings that an officer makes at the scene of an offence/crime. This document includes both the movable (assets like vehicles, jewellery) etc.) and the immovable (house, office) properties. After the inclusion of all the assets, a detailed list of all the items is made. The signature of the person whose premises have been raided is taken on the panchnama.

The vehicles attached during the raid are sent to warehouses owned by the Central Warehousing Corporation. Here, the ED has to make the payment for the vehicle’s parking. This is done to ensure that the seized cash or the vehicles are not spoiled or damaged. Once a provisional attachment order is passed, the property shall remain attached to the ED for 180 days. The time limit of this duration will be from the date of passing of such order and pending the confirmation of the attachment order by the Ld Adjudicating Authority.

During this time limit, if the Enforcement Directorate arrests a person the agency gets 60 days to file the prosecution complaint. The punishment under PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) doesn’t go beyond seven years. Another important feature related to ED is that both the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and the PMLA apply to the whole of India. So, the ED can take action against any person to which this act applies.