Last verified: 2026-07-21<\/p>\n
The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 makes it an offence to conceal, possess, acquire, use or project as untainted any property derived from a scheduled offence. The Enforcement Directorate enforces it, and can attach property before trial, summon any person under Section 50, and prosecute before a Special Court. Punishment runs from three to seven years.<\/p>\n
This article sets out how the Prevention of Money Laundering Act works in practice, from the offence and the Schedule through the ECIR, attachment, arrest and bail, to where the law stood in 2026.<\/p>\n
The Act reaches further than the person who committed the original crime. Someone never named in the predicate FIR can still be prosecuted under Section 3, provided they knowingly assisted in concealing, possessing or using the proceeds. That one feature is why company officers, chartered accountants and family members turn up as accused in matters they had no hand in starting.<\/p>\n
Most of what a reader needs sits in the machinery rather than the definition. An Enforcement Case Information Report has no statutory basis anywhere in the Act or the Rules. A provisional attachment runs on a 180-day clock. And Section 45 reverses the ordinary bail assumption, so the court has to be satisfied about innocence before release rather than the prosecution proving guilt before detention.<\/p>\n\n