The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is the investigating agency for all offences committed under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act). The law gives the ED powers to criminally prosecute and attach assets of the accused. The amendments to the Act made this year have given the ED unprecedented powers where it can arrest an individual even without an FIR. All offences are now cognisable and non-bailable.Let's check out the most recent high-profile ED probe targets:
ROBERT VADRA
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law has been on the radar of the CBI and ED for alleged irregularities in multiple land deals. The ED has been more hawkish, questioning Vadra eight times so far. It has also raided offices of Vadra's skylight Hospitality and attached assets.
P. CHIDAMBARAM, SON KARTI
Chidambaram is lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail, following arrest by the CBI, which is also investing the INX Media case.
Ahmed Patel
Sonia Gandhi's most trusted lieutenant, Ahmed Patel, has also been facing the ED heat. In the past three months, the agency has questioned Patel's son and son-in-law in the Sterling Biotech money-laundering case.
Opposition leaders allege the ED is being selective in picking its targets and is not pursuing cases against leaders of the BJP with the same intensity.
B.S. HOODA, MOTILAL VORA
The ED has filed a prosecution complaint against former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and senior Congress leader Motilal Vora over alleged irregularities in land allotted to Associated Journals Limited, owned by the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul Gandhi, in Panchkula.
D.K. SHIVKUMARThe Congress leader was arrested following a probe based on income-tax raids at his Bengaluru home in 2017 and the recovery of alleged unaccounted wealth. The former Karnataka minister is lodged in the same Tihar Jail unit as Chidambaram.
SHARAD PAWAR
The most recent ED case to make headlines is the summons sent to National Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar in connection with the Rs 2,500 crore loan fraud in the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB). The case is based on a Mumbai police FIR registered in August 2019 on the directions of the Bombay High Court.
MAYAWATI
Mayawati faces money-laundering charges in the building of Dalit memorials in UP when she was chief minister between 2007 and 2012. Less than three months before the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly poll, the ED had detected over Rs 104 crore in an account linked to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
LALU YADAV AND FAMILY
The RJD, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Ydav and daughter Misa Bharti have been charge-sheeted in the IRCTC hotels allotment scams.
ASHOK GEHLOT, SACHIN PILOT
In Sepember, a PMLA tribunal slammed the ED for its "concocted" loss figure of Rs 23.9 crore in a Rajasthan ambulance scheme case, in which CM Gehlot and deputy CM Pilot were named.
Praful PatelQuestioned for his alleged role in an aviation scam that allegedly caused losses to Air India.