Meet an IITian IPS officer during whose tenure property worth Rs 36,000 crore were seized by the ED

The IITian IPS officer who energized the ED and did what was not an as easy task as it appeared at a first Glance. 

BY Vijay Thakur, Special Representative, The Statesman, vijaythakurx@gmail.com

The name of former Enforcement Director Karnal Singh, IPS officer of 1984 batch is not new among the top brass of intelligence agencies who are probing cases internal security, terror financing, and financial irregularities. He first shot into fame when as a DCP Crime Delhi Police, he solved a series of multiple blasts which rocked the capital around 1995. His scientific style of investigations received appreciations not only from IB, Military intelligence and RAW, but also from international intelligence agencies including CIA, which acknowledged his tech-Intel gathering SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) devised by him for tracking three or four 4 exact telephone numbers from over 15 million telephone calls made to Bangladesh and Pakistan from within the one-kilometre radius of over a dozen Blast sites. Some of his Tech-Intel SOPs were even used by US intelligence agencies in 9/11 terror attack investigations. When he was heading Crime and Special Branch of Delhi Police, he neutralized several terror modules in and around Delhi.

Karnal Singh Headed Enforcement Directorate and exposed a series of terror financing and money laundering cases. During his tenure, ED handled high profile cases including the 2G scam, the coal scam, the National Herald case, the Vijay Mallya scam, the Hassan Ali scam, the Aircel-Maxis and INX Media case involving former UPA finance minister P Chidambaram and his son, Karti Chidambaram, the PNB scam involving diamantaires Nirav Modi and his uncle, Mehul Choksi, cases involving NCP leader Chaggan Bhujbal, cases involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi, the Sterling-Biotech fraud and the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam.

In three years his team seized property to the tune of Rs 36,000 crore—highest ever seizure by ED in such a short tenure since the inception of ED and enactment of FEMA and PLMA. Karnal Singh spoke to Vijay Thakur, the Special Representative, the Statesman on the functioning of ED, the problem faced by it and why it appeared to have become super active during the past few years.

Q and A 

Question:

Enforcement Directorate has never been so active as it had become after you joined ED. It has been hitting headlines every now and then for the past six years. Why EC has become so important investigating agency vis-a-vis other premier investigating agency of the country.

Answer:

If you go into the background of the Enforcement Directorate, it goes back to even prior to independence. During the second world war, there was lots of corruption in the purchases. It led to the formation of CBI and implementation of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1947. It was then that ED was created as a small unit under RBI to deal with the foreign with foreign exchange violations. In 1999 FERA was repealed and FEMA (foreign Exchange Management Act) came into the offing. Because after 1991 economic reforms foreign exchange conditions in India improved substantially and Regulations were changed into Management. The difference was that prior to 1999 ED had the power to arrest people, FERA was a criminal offence, while FEMA was a civil offence.

Again in 2005,   Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was promulgated, and the ED was made the sole agency to implement it. The PMLA has given a lot of power to ED including attaching the properties of proceeds of crime and arresting the accused persons. There were now a large number of cases which the ED could take up. So the influx of cases you see in the news was more because seizure and arrested started taking places only after the law was made more stringent.

Question:

What was the problem ED was facing? And why after you joined the ED became hyperactive. What you did to transform the Directorate?

 

Answer:

Though the Act came into being in 2005, the Directorate was not able to take it up with full force due to the acute shortage of manpower. Out of the sanctioned strength of 2000 staff, the existing strength was only 700 in 2015 when I took over. We realized if the ED has to improve working, the only way was to increase qualified manpower and this cannot be done overnight. We sent a proposal to the government to give more incentive to people joining ED on deputation from Customs, Income Tax, and various Police Organisations. Once the proposal was approved, we started getting qualified manpower on deputation..within three years the staff strength increased by 40 %, and it showed the desired results.

Secondly, we started training ED staff on the latest high tech electronic evidence collections, its analysis and revised SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures). Further, a boot course was started to upgrade their skills and on how to present their case before the courts with proper facts and figures. We must remember that in ED you are dealing with those who have high-level connections, can afford the best of the best battery of lawyers in the courts. Because of the rigorous training to ED staff and attractive benefits, ED Investigating officer was able to handle a high profile case like Neerav Modi, Vijay Malaya, etc. And it reflected in the seizure, arrest and conviction of the cases. We were able to attach property worth Rs 36,000 crore during my tenure, which was the highest ever.

We also approached High Courts requesting it to device a mechanism to expedite the trial of PMLA cases. I personally visited along with my officials interacted with 10 judicial academies. When I joined ED not even a single case of PMLA was decided, but now more than 10 cases have been decided. We hope more and more decisions would come in the coming months that would help in improving the image of the Directorate.

One more thing we introduced in ED, we set up six in-house forensic lab to examine electronic documents. Earlier we used to rely on CBI CFSL labs, which sometimes used to take as long as three years give the report. With the facility of the inhouse forensic lab, we can examine any electronic documents within hours and get a report in 24 hours. This not only collected evidence faster but also helped in the interrogation of the accused persons.

 

Question

Did it really reflect on its performance?

Answer:

Statistics itself speaks of the improved performance. Second is public perception. People are now recognizing and appreciating the proactive action taken by the Directorate. During the past five years, the agency has moved forward in many cases pending for a long time. For example Augusta Westland, which case was pending for a long period but we took quick actions, in Vijay Malya cases property worth 13,500 crores was attached, in Neerav Modi case, immediately the property to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore was attached immediately. Sterling biotech cases property worth Rs 5,000 was attached. Besides the ED has also started taking action against terror finance cases including the naxal cases of the central India and Jehadi terrorism.

Question:

ED has also been attacked for alleged political interference. Accused people claimed that they were victimized by the party in power because of the political connections of the accused persons. Is it that ED gets political directions.

Answer:

It is very easy to accuse an investigating agency because we are a disciplined force and do not revert to these accusations. Earlier certain high profile criminals or those who were involved in corrupt practices thought that they would never be caught. It is a fact that they have high connections and can afford to hire the best legal brains of the country.

Now when they were caught and confronted with electronic documents, they are finding it difficult to defend themselves. Their only defence is to make allegations against the agencies and play a victim card and accuse that all is done at the behest of ‘SOMEBODY’. But actually, it is their Karma which they are facing now.

Question:

Since ED is investigating very high profile cases and accused are well connected politically as well financially. It is very easy to make allegations against investigating officers and tarnish their image. Do you think the officers who are handling sensitive cases need to have some kind of protection to have freedom of investigations to give qualitative results?

Answer:

It is a very difficult question. We have democracy, we have the freedom to speak. And people can make any allegations against anybody. Laws of defamation are not very stringent and not very strong and takes a lot of time to get the decision. And a government servant avoids going to court for one reason or the other. Some kind of protection may come in the act itself. Saying that no allegations can be made against the investigating officers and should be made liable if the allegations are found to be untrue. Officers who are handling such difficult cases require support from their seniors, and ED needs to stand with them in case false allegations. And if the allegations are true then certainly stringent actions must be taken to the Investigating Officers to prevent such acts.

Ends.