White-Collar and Economic Offences

Money laundering and the PMLA

The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 makes it an offence under Section 3 to deal in any way with the proceeds of a crime, by concealing, possessing, acquiring or using them, or projecting them as untainted. A money-laundering case rests on a separate predicate or scheduled offence; the Enforcement Directorate records its own Enforcement Case Information Report and can summon persons and record statements under Section 50, attach property under Section 5, and arrest under Section 19.

In Vijay Madanlal Choudhary v. Union of India the Supreme Court upheld this framework, including the reverse burden under Section 24 and the stringent twin conditions for bail under Section 45. It also held that the ED's information report is an internal document, not a public FIR. The protections that remain are real and must be enforced: in Pankaj Bansal v. Union of India the Court held that the grounds of arrest must be furnished to the arrested person in writing, so that the right to seek bail is meaningful. The firm acts from the first summons under Section 50, where what is said and recorded can shape everything that follows.

Fraud, cheating and forgery

Most economic-offence prosecutions also run on the general criminal law: cheating under Section 318 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, criminal breach of trust under Section 316, forgery under Section 336, and criminal conspiracy under Section 61. Corporate fraud carries its own exposure under Section 447 of the Companies Act, 2013, which the Serious Fraud Investigation Office investigates under Section 212.

These cases are won or lost on whether the ingredients of the offence are actually made out on the documents, dishonest intention at the outset for cheating, entrustment for breach of trust, the making of a false document for forgery. The firm tests each ingredient against the record rather than treating the allegation as proof.

Investigations: ED, CBI, SFIO and the EOW

Responding to an investigating agency is a skilled exercise. A summons under Section 50 of the PMLA, a notice from the CBI or the Economic Offences Wing, or an SFIO inquiry each carries obligations and rights that need to be understood before the first appearance, not after. Statements are recorded, documents are called for, and searches and seizures are conducted under specific safeguards.

The firm advises on how to respond, what to produce, how a statement is recorded and preserved, and how to protect a client's position while cooperating with a lawful investigation. The aim is to keep the client on the right side of the line while ensuring the agency itself follows the procedure the law requires of it.

Bail in economic offences

Bail in a money-laundering case must clear the twin conditions in Section 45 of the PMLA: the court must be satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe the accused is not guilty and is not likely to offend on bail. These are demanding, but they are not a bar to liberty. In Sanjay Chandra v. CBI the Supreme Court held that even in serious economic offences, detention before conviction is not to be used as a punishment, and prolonged custody through a long trial is not justified by the gravity of the charge alone.

A bail application in this area is a detailed, evidence-based exercise. It is prepared on the material the agency itself has gathered, identifying why the threshold for continued custody is not met.

The electronic money trail and digital forensics

Modern economic-offence cases are largely electronic: bank and UPI transactions, accounting data, emails, messages, server logs, seized devices and, increasingly, digital assets. Under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam such records are admissible only with proper certification, and much of the contest is over whether they were lawfully collected, correctly certified and unaltered.

This is where the firm's technology background is a direct advantage. The work includes reading a money trail across accounts, checking the integrity of a device image through its hash values, examining metadata and timestamps, and exposing the gap between what a dataset actually proves and what the prosecution asserts. The same scrutiny is brought whether the firm is defending an accused or assisting a company that has itself been defrauded.

The legal framework

The principal statutes and the provisions that most often decide these matters. Statute text can be read in the firm's Legal Library; always check the current version at the official source.

Key judgments

Grouped by issue. Each case is cited from the court's own record; open a heading to read it.

How we work on these matters

One advocate stays responsible for the matter from the first summons or notice through to trial and appeal, so the client deals with a single counsel who knows the whole file.

The defence is built on the agency's own material: the statements, the seized documents and the electronic record, examined closely and tested for what they actually establish.

The electronic evidence is read with real technical understanding rather than taken at face value, and advice on exposure and on bail is given candidly, including where the position is difficult.

Frequently asked questions