Odisha stresses action to check illegal money trail

Chief secretary at a workshop says that due to globalization, trail of money in global economic market has become very difficult

Waking up to cases of large scale loot of depositors’ money by fly-by-night operators, the state government has stressed on strengthening the enforcement wing and called for coordinated efforts to prosecute the offenders.

“Economic offences play havoc in the life of common men. Due to  globalisation, the trail of money in global economic market has become very difficult and it needs highly sophisticated technology to track the offenders. Coordinated efforts among various enforcement mechanisms is highly necessary for tracking, prosecution and confiscation of the properties of the offenders,” state chief secretary J K Mohapatra said here at a workshop on ‘Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

Mohapatra said, people need to be sensitised on dangers involved in fictitious investments that promise unrealistic returns.

“The type and nature of economic crimes have exceeded the conventional crimes.  Enhancement of service sector in economy has brought economic offences to focus in recent days. The volume of scams, money laundering, chit funds and land scams  have gone to the extent that one agency will not be able to contain it. There has to be seamless coordination among various agencies of Enforcement to  deal with the situation,” said Odisha’s director general of police Prakash Mishra.

Speaking on the occasion, Vipin Kumar Saxena, principal secretary (home) said, “PMLA is a response to the huge volume of illegal money transacted during post economic liberalization and now we have to address the problem from the angles of prevention, prosecution, confiscation of  properties of the offenders and return of money to the depositors.”

Ranjan Kotach, chairman of Enforcement Directorate said, “The rate of prosecution is increasing day by day and there is need for more skilled and experienced manpower for enforcement activities. We look forward to scale up our activities in Bhubaneswar in the coming days.”

In compliance with the Supreme Court’s order on last Friday, the Odisha government said, it is ready to provide full cooperation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a probe into the multi-crore chit fund scam.

The CBI will investigate cases against 44 scam tainted firms in the state that include West Bengal based Saradha Group and state based Seashore and Artha Tatwa Group among others.

In Odisha, fraudulent companies had duped investors’ money worth Rs 4,600 crore, affecting around one million families.