Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the central government, told the apex court that in the case of Vijay Mallya, Nirab Modi and Mehul Choksi, Rs 18,000 crore had been returned to the banks.
The central government has told the Supreme Court that Rs 18,000 crore has been returned to the bank on behalf of Vijay Mallya, Nirab Modi and Mehul Choksi. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court that the amount had been returned to the banks. Earlier, the apex court had stayed the contempt of court case against fugitive businessman Vijay Malia till February 24. The Supreme Court has given Vijay Mallya two weeks. This is the last time to apply to the court through a lawyer.
Tushar Mehta told a bench headed by Justice AM Khanwalkar that the total number of cases related to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the Supreme Court was Rs 67,000 crore. The other members of the bench are Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice City Ravi Kumar.
He said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is currently investigating 4,700 cases. He said that in the last five years, new cases under investigation by the ED ranged from 111 cases in 2105-16 to 981 cases in 2020-21.
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The Supreme Court is hearing the appeal challenging the wide scope of powers conferred on the ED under the PML. The ED has the power to investigate, seize, search and seize property under the PMLA. Mehta told the bench that between 2016 and 2021, the ED had accepted only 2,086 PMLA cases for investigation while 33 lakh FIRs were registered for such cases.
He said the PMLA handles very few cases each year, with 7,900 cases each year under the Money Laundering Act in the United Kingdom, 1,532 in the United States, 4,691 in China, 1,036 in Austria, 1,823 in Hong Kong and 1,862 in Belgium. There are 2,764 cases in Russia.
In the last few weeks, senior advocates like Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Mukul Rohatgi, Siddharth Luthra, Amit Desai and others have drawn the attention of the Supreme Court to various aspects of possible misuse of provisions in the amended PMLA.
