Top Controversial Cases of Money Laundering In India

Money laundering is the conversion of money from illegal to legal one. The Money so converted is illegal and is obtained from illegal activities. The Illegal activities may involve corruption, Fraud, Cheating etc. In India, Money Laundering is generally linked with corruption but other reasons are also there such as tax evasion. There are a lot of high-profile cases of money laundering in India. Most of time these type of cases are influenced by Politics as without political support such big amount of money cannot be converted and involve big business firms.

Money laundering is usually done to hide the corruption but this also needs corruption. “Corruption is used to hide corruption”. The roots of money laundering are Corruption. Even though India has a specific law to deal with this problem but it is not effective as there were many cases which involved crores of money. The law needs to be more strict in the sense of corruption. The tax paid by the people of India is being misused.

Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002

The act was enacted on 17 January 2003. An act to prevent money laundering and confiscation of property derived from or involved in money laundering.

There are three main purposes of this Act:

• Prevent and Control Money Laundering.
• Confiscate and seize property involved in money laundering.
• Other issues related to money laundering in India.

The Act also Provides for punishment which shall be rigorous in nature and can range up to three to seven years of imprisonment.

High Profile Money laundering cases in India

Common Wealth Games Scam 2010: 70,000 Crore Scam

New Delhi, Suresh Kalmadi, Sheila Dixit- the then Chief Minister of the State.It is estimated that out of 70000 crores spent on the Games, only half of the said amount was spent on Indian sportspersons. discrepancies in tenders – like payment to non-existent parties, willful delays in execution of contracts, over-inflated price and bungling in purchase of equipment through tendering – and misappropriation of funds.

Group financial scandal 2013: A 4000 Crore Scam

West Bengal Kunal Ghosh, Sudipto Sen, Madan Mitra and many more Financial scam caused by the collapse of a Ponzi scheme run by Saradha Group, a consortium of over 200 private companies that were believed to be running collective investment schemes popularly but incorrectly referred to as chit funds.

Indian coal allocation scam 2012: 185,591 Crore Scam

National Comptroller and Auditor General of India, the coal ministry, many electricity boards and private companies coal blocks allotted, not auctioned, leading to estimated losses as per the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. Supreme Court cancels all 214 coal blocks allocations since 1993. Government to e-auction the coal blocks now.

2G scam 2008: 176,000 Crore Scam

National Nira Radia, A. Raja, M. K. Kanimozhi, many telecommunications companies communication bandwidths auctioned for lower than market value.A. Raja and M. K. Kanimozhi have been in Tihar Jail for 15 months and 5 months respectively.

– Adv. Devyani Bhati

Content Writer @ Legal Bites