ED files 6,312 cases while conviction in 120 cases in nearly 12 years

New Delhi: Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed 6,312 cases in the last 11 years and 7 months, against which the conviction count was 120, Parliament was informed on Monday.

In percentage terms, conviction against the total number of cases filed during the period comes to 0.01 per cent.

"After the amendment of PMLA by the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2019 (No. 23 of 2019) through insertion of proviso to Section 44(1)(b) with effect from August 1, 2019, Closure Report is required to be filed by ED before the Special Court, PMLA, in cases where no offence of money-laundering is made out," Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

Since then, ED has filed Closure Report before the concerned Special Court in 93 cases, where no offence of money-laundering is made out due to various reasons such as Closure of Schedule offence case, cases where the Court finds no offence committed related to Schedule Offence defined under PMLA, quashing of Predicate Offence case, etc, he said.

"Prior to the aforesaid amendment (i.e. before 01.08.2019), cases where no money-laundering offence was made out were closed with the prior approval of regional Special Director of Enforcement. As such, since the inception of PMLA i.e. 01.07.2005 up to 31.07.2019, 1185 cases were closed," he said.

Replying to another question, Chaudhary said that the stock of financial assets of households has increased from Rs 228.7 lakh crore as on end-March 2021 to Rs 352.6 lakh crore as on end-March 2025, as per the Reserve Bank of India.

During the same period, the stock of financial liabilities increased from Rs 77.7 lakh crore to Rs 136.6 lakh crore, he said.

In another reply, Chaudhary said, household financial liabilities remained moderate and stable as a share of GDP until 2019-20, followed by a sharp rise during and after the Covid pandemic, peaking in 2023-24, reflecting increased reliance on borrowings.

"As per the RBI's Financial Stability Report published in December 2023, this increase was driven by a steep rise in borrowings from financial institutions, with a large part resulting in physical assets creation (mortgages and vehicles). In 2024-25, both the absolute level and the share in GDP have declined, indicating early signs of deleveraging," he said.