Bihar plans to bring in law to curb black money

The Bihar government has got Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's nod to bring in a Bill, similar to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for effective crackdown on black money, highly-placed sources in the state government said. The Bill which might have the provision of attachment of property of an accused, could be brought either in the Bihar Legislature's next month's session or later on, the sources in police headquarters said. "In case of difficulty in full-fledged law immediately, an ordinance could be issued by the state government to this effect," he added.

Bihar would be the first state in the country to work on its own law against ill-gotten wealth on the lines of PMLA. Sources said that the state police has already moved a draft proposal in this regard to Chief Secretary Ashok Kumar Sinha.

The efforts for a separate legislation comes in the wake of the state failing twice to get permission under the PMLA to attach and confiscate property of up to Rs 5 crore from those accused in money laundering charges. Incidentally, the Enforcement Directorate has recently lodged an FIR against BSP leader and former state minister Dadan Singh alias Dadan Pahalwan under Money Laundering Act.

"The schedule of offenses considered under PMLA is related only to Central legislations. A crime attracts PMLA only if it is among 125 crimes listed in the Central government money laundering Act of 2002," Director General of Police (DGP) Abhayanand told PTI. "The crime committed in violation of sales tax, excise, mining and other revenue earning areas are not covered under PMLA which is coming as a big handicap in Bihar," the DGP said.