Financial intelligence units in every dist

To keep tabs on financial irregularities and misappropriation, Financial Intelligence Units (FIU), under the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), will be set up in every district and commissionerates in the State.

A proposal has been placed before the government in this regard to strengthen intelligence gathering in non-governmental banks and non-banking financial companies. The FIUs are presently functioning in six districts across the State.

“The FIUs in the six districts have been functioning for the past 10 months. However, we have placed a proposal to have these units headed by a DySP in all the districts and police commissionerates. It is a unique approach which got the government mandate some time ago. The main objective to start the unit is to gather intelligence about criminal activities in financial sectors, both organised and unorganised. These units will have suo motu powers to gather intelligence and report,” a senior official said.

Based on the input provided by the units, the Economic Offences Wing of the CID can launch investigation into financial frauds and misappropriation of more than Rs one crore in government and non-government banks. If the misappropriation is restricted to a district, the SP or the Commissioner concerned will be informed, with the intelligence input, the officer said.
Nodal agency

The FIUs will also play the role of a nodal agency with the Reserve Bank of India, Enforcement Directorate and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, besides probing the cases referred by these agencies.

The FIUs have the mandate to also provide source report on irregularities and illegalities under special Acts such as Cofeposa (Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act), Fema (Foreign Exchange Management Act) and PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act). “The CID receives cases referred either by the State government or the State DGP and IGP. The FIUs are the ones which have the mandate to even probe the financial scams in various sectors. Since intelligence gathering is a continuous process, it takes some time before we get some result. The mandate also includes keeping close tabs on the circulation of counterfeit currency in the State. Our main focus will be on government, non-governmental banks and non-banking financial firms in the State,” the officer said.

5.52 percent cases

The State doesn’t have an alarming number of cases under Economic Offences. According to National Crime Record Bureau, the State’s share in cognisable offences registered under the IPC for economic offences in 2013 was 5.52 per cent.