Story in numbers: Extra diligent

Over the past few weeks, the ED has been active in carrying out raids across the country

Enforcement Directorate (ED) is a specialised financial investigation agency under the department of revenue, ministry of finance. It enforces the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, (FEMA) — a civil law, and Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, (PMLA) - a criminal law. 

Under the latter, the agency has power to arrest and confiscate property of the accused. Over the past few weeks, the ED has been active in carrying out raids and arresting a number of people across the country. While opposition parties have cried vendetta, the government has said it was acting against hoarders and generators of unaccounted money, one of its key election promises. 

Some recent targets include relatives of Lalu Prasad and Karti Chidambaram. While the moves have intensified under the second phase of ‘Operation Clean Money’ after note ban, even in the first year of the Modi regime (2014-15), there was a sharp increase in the number of prosecutions, arrests and attachment orders under the PMLA, data from the agency's website showed. 

There was no major spike in the fema cases, though the number of pending cases fell, as the number of new cases was less than the number disposed of. The ED managed to do all this despite being short-staffed. It only had 682 staffers at the end of March 2015. Though the number had gone up significantly from 570 three years earlier, it was a third of the sanctioned strength.

* Attachment orders confirmed by adjudicating authority