ED Returns ₹32,600 Crore To Claimants In FY26, More Than Double A Year Earlier

(MENAFN- Live Mint) NEW DELHI: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) returned ₹32,678 crore of attached assets to fraud victims and other claimants in fiscal year 2025-26 (FY26), more than double the amount restituted a year earlier, underscoring an acceleration in its anti-money laundering drive.

The restitution, covering banks, investors, and homebuyers, compares with ₹15,263 crore returned in FY25, the agency said in its annual report released on Friday. Restitution refers to the return of assets attached in money laundering cases to legitimate owners based on court orders.

The ramp-up comes alongside a broader increase in enforcement activity. The ED recorded 1,080 cases in the year ended March 2026, up from 775 in the previous year, and issued 712 provisional attachment orders versus 461 a year earlier.

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The value of assets attached surged to ₹81,423 crore in FY26 from ₹30,364 crore in FY25. The amount returned in FY26 accounts for more than half of all restitution carried out by the agency to date, while the FY25 figure alone matched the total returned over the previous decade, according to the report.

Speaking at an event marking 70 years of the agency, ED director Rahul Navin said sustained enforcement and policy action have led to a visible decline in traditional offences such as bank frauds, large corporate scams, and real estate fraud.

“Today, the criminal landscape is defined by cryptocurrency fraud, cyber-enabled financial crimes, terror financing, anti-national activities, and narcotics trafficking,” said Navin.

The agency also filed 812 prosecution complaints under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in FY26, nearly twice the previous year's figure.

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“To put this in perspective, out of all the prosecution complaints ever filed by the directorate, over 41% have been filed in just the last two years. This acceleration in investigative and prosecutorial output is not incidental; it is the result of deliberate, sustained, and intelligence-driven effort,” he said.

Navin said the ED's conviction rate stands at 94% and expressed confidence that most of the more than 2,400 cases pending before trial courts would result in convictions and confiscation of proceeds of crime.

Revenue secretary Arvind Shrivastava, also present at the event, said the challenge is to ensure enforcement remains calibrated so that legitimate participants in the formal economy are not unduly burdened.

“The highest standards of professionalism, integrity and transparency must underpin all actions. Investigations must be timely, evidence based and efficient with a focus on expeditious attachment, adjudication and prosecution,” he said.

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