The Enforcement Directorate recorded a decline in arrests during FY26, while raids, chargesheets and asset attachments reached record levels. The agency also restored more than Rs 32,000 crore to fraud victims and increased international cooperation in money laundering investigations
Published Date – 2 May 2026, 06:28 PM
New Delhi: Arrests made by the ED in money laundering cases reduced by about 27 per cent during the last financial year, but the value of attached assets recorded an all-time high of over Rs 81,000 crore during the period, official data stated.
Searches or raids conducted by the central agency under the stringent provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) almost doubled to 2,892 during the 2025-26 fiscal that ended on March 31.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sweeping powers under the PMLA in connection with the definition of proceeds of crime, power of arrest, search and seizure, and attachment of properties. The provisions of the Act also make securing bail extremely difficult because the court must be satisfied that the accused is not guilty and is also not likely to commit another crime while on bail.
In the past fiscal, the ED exceeded its target of restoring attached assets to victims of fraud by more than double, as it restituted properties worth more than Rs 32,000 crore during the period. The agency had set a target of restoring assets worth Rs 15,000 crore at the start of FY26 in April 2025.
PTI accessed the data furnished by the agency in its annual report (FY 2025-26) and found that the ED arrested 156 persons during the fiscal, compared to 214 in 2024-25, a decline of about 27 per cent. During 2023-24, the number stood at 272.
The ED said the number of arrests reduced because it was undertaking “more targeted and evidence-based investigations”.
Elaborating on the “highest-ever” provisional attachment of assets in a single year (FY26) — a 171 per cent increase in value of attachments at Rs 81,422 crore under 712 orders — the agency said this was a “central instrument” through which it ensures that criminals are deprived of the fruits of crime generated “illicitly”.
In comparison, the agency had issued 461 provisional attachment orders involving assets valued at Rs 30,036 crore during FY25.
As the name suggests, these attachment orders are provisional and are confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority under the PMLA, a quasi-judicial body.
The raids undertaken by the ED, often covered extensively by television news channels and newspapers, more than doubled to 2,892 during FY26, compared to 1,491 during the previous year.
The report added that the ED was not relying “entirely” on physical searches, but its investigators were “triangulating” financial intelligence from multiple databases simultaneously, tracing cryptocurrency flows through blockchain analytics and accessing corporate and property records in real time.
This helped the ED file a “record” 812 chargesheets during FY26, compared to 457 prosecution complaints filed before courts during the previous year.
That is why, the report said, the ED has been able to “significantly” reduce the life cycle of cases from the earlier three-four years to 1-1.5 years now.
Data showed that the number of Enforcement Case Information Reports (ECIRs) registered to initiate PMLA probes jumped 39 per cent to 1,080 cases during the last fiscal, compared to 775 cases filed during FY25.
The most significant data was reflected in the restitution of assets category, where the ED restores assets attached under the PMLA to victims of fraud such as investors, homebuyers and banks.
The agency restored assets worth Rs 32,678 crore during the last fiscal, compared to Rs 15,263 crore handed over to victims of fraud during FY25.
ED Director Rahul Navin had set a target of restoring assets worth Rs 15,000 crore at the start of FY26, PTI reported last year.
The report said that the ED could “double” this figure after achieving major success in the PACL “ponzi” case, in which assets worth Rs 15,582 crore were restored, accounting for almost half of the total restored amount of Rs 32,678 crore.
The report also included figures showing that legal requests, such as Letters Rogatory (LR) and Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) requests, sent by the ED to other countries for assistance in money laundering cases, have grown “considerably”.
As of March 31, 2026, there were 353 pending MLAT/LR requests, with the highest number pending before the UAE at 69 (about 19.6 per cent), followed by Singapore at 55, the UK at 39, Hong Kong at 36, the USA at 26, Switzerland at 23 and Mauritius at 15, among others.
The agency also received such legal cooperation requests from foreign countries and, out of the 246 received till FY26, the maximum were sent by the UK at 79 (32.9 per cent), followed by Singapore at 33, the USA at 32 and France at 7, among others.
