The UPA government has set up a high- profile crack team under the aegis of the Enforcement Directorate to investigate scams of “national importance”.
Stung by a series of corruption cases, the UPA government has set up a high- profile crack team under the aegis of the Enforcement Directorate to investigate scams of “national importance”.
The special team will have experts from various sectors including banking, income tax, security exchange board of India and the Reserve Bank of India. The team will be headed by ED additional director RP Upadhyaya along with the 2G scam investigator Rajeshwar Singh.
It will handle cases such as the 2G spectrum scam, irregularities in 2010 Commonwealth Games, Bellary mining scam, money laundering case against Pune-based Hasan Ali and irregularities in IPL cricket.
“The team will be tasked with cases which have ‘national importance’. It is a move to focus exclusively on big financial scams where the government machinery is involved. Besides, corporate scams will also be handled with more seriousness by this unit,” a senior finance ministry official told DNA. The ED comes under the ministry of finance.
The ED is mainly concerned with the enforcement of the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMLA) and the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
The directorate has faced severe criticism from the apex court for its inability to complete its case against Pune stud farm owner Hasan Ali after it delayed the investigation for four years.
The ED has been facing a shortage of investigating staff and made a proposal to the ministry of finance to increase the work force to four times a couple of months ago.
With about 3,000 investigators spread over 10 zones, the ED is currently handling more than 1,200 cases. Though the ministry has cleared the proposal to increase ED’s strength to 12,000, it will take a year before it is done.
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