Banks have recovered ₹18,000 from fugitives Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi: Government

New Delhi: Banks have recovered ₹18,000 crore from fugitive tycoons Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The top court was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the wide scope of powers given to the Enforcement Directorate in connection to money laundering cases.

Mehta told the Justice AM Khanwilkar-led bench the value of cases registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Mallya, Modi, and Choksi is now ₹67,000 crore.

Over the last weeks, several senior advocates, including Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Mukul Rohatgi have made submissions before the Supreme Court on potential misuse of the recent amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act or PMLA.

The law has been criticised over a range of issues -- stringent bail conditions, non-communication of grounds of arrest, arrest of persons without supply of ECIR (parallel to a First Information Report filed by the police), the broadening of the definition of money laundering, proceeds of crime, and statements given by accused during investigation made admissible as evidence during trial.

A very small number of cases are being taken up for investigation under the PMLA in India, compared to the situation abroad, the Centre told a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar.

As examples, the Centre cited the UK, where 7,900 cases have been filed under the Money Laundering Act in a year, the US (1,532), China (4,691), Austria (1,036), Hongkong (1,823), Belgium (1,862) and Russia (2,764).

In India, 4,700 PMLA cases are being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate and the total proceeds of crimes pending before the court amounts to ₹ 67,000 crore, the Centre said.

The number of cases taken up for investigation each year in the last 5 years varies from 111 cases in 2015-16 to 981 in 2020-21, the Centre said. Over the last five years (2016-17 to 2020-21), 33 lakh FIRs have been filed for such offences. But only 2,086 cases were taken up for investigation, the Centre said.