ED asks sleuths to issue summons diligently

With instances of investigating officers intimidating the accused and using coercive techniques while probing financial crimes and money laundering cases, the Enforcement Directorate has asked its sleuths to mandatorily maintain a count of all summons issued with a recorded justification for dispatching such legal warrants.
The agency, which is probing some major financial scams in the country, has abolished more than decade-old directions notified in this regard for issuance of summons to individuals and corporates under the stringent provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
The strong legal provisions of PMLA can be gauged by the fact that once booked under this law, the onus of proving not guilty is on the accused.

The new directives, which include keeping the summons book under a serial number protocol and recording reasons for summoning someone, were issued sometime back by the ED headquarters after agency Director Rajan Katoch stumbled upon existing lacunaes in issuance of summons and reported instances of arm-twisting of parties in question.
"This has happened for the first time that there are as many as eight stages to be cleared and checked by an IO before summoning an accused or a witness in a money laundering or foreign exchange contraventions case.The new orders will surely act to reduce instances of corruption and allegations of high-handedness on the agency and its sleuths," sources privy to the development said.

The new directives, accessed by PTI, mandate the IO to explicitly state on the summons whether they have been issued "to record the statement of the person or to furnish documents only".