India’s crackdown on money laundering has intensified over the past decade, with investigations, asset attachments, and convictions reaching new heights under the BJP government since 2014, reshaping the country’s anti-corruption landscape.
Parliamentary disclosures have laid out the scale of India’s money-laundering crackdown, showing a sharp rise in cases registered by the Enforcement Directorate over the past decade. According to a reply cited by Bar and Bench, the agency initiated 6,444 investigations since 2014, while earlier reporting by The Economic Times put the figure at more than 5,200 cases between 2014 and 2024. The variation appears to reflect different cut-off dates and reporting windows, but both sets of figures point in the same direction: the use of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act has expanded markedly since the BJP government took office in 2014.
The latest data also suggests that the ED has become more aggressive even as arrests have fallen. The India Today-owned investigative outlet The Indian Express reported that arrests dropped to 156 in 2025-26 from 214 a year earlier, a decline of 27%, while searches rose to 2,892 and provisional attachment orders reached 712, covering assets worth more than ₹81,000 crore. A separate analysis cited by Vision IAS said the value of assets attached in money-laundering cases rose from ₹5,171 crore in 2005-14 to ₹1.19 lakh crore in 2014-24, underscoring the shift towards property seizure and financial disruption rather than relying only on custodial action.
Court outcomes cited by the government have been used to bolster the agency’s record. Bar and Bench reported that the ED secured convictions in 53 of 56 money-laundering cases decided on merits since 2014, while The Economic Times said the tally was 40 convictions and 3 acquittals over the 2014-24 period. In the same vein, the finance ministry told Parliament that the agency’s Enforcement Case Information Reports peaked at 1,116 in 2021-22, up from 181 in 2014-15, highlighting how quickly the anti-money laundering machinery has scaled up.
The trends matter because PMLA cases occupy a distinctive place in India’s criminal justice system. The law, which came into force in July 2005, gives the ED powers to attach property suspected to be linked to criminal proceeds, question accused persons and prosecute cases before special courts. Proceedings can begin only when there is a scheduled offence being investigated by another law-enforcement agency, and the statute places a heavy burden on the accused to prove that the assets involved are clean. That architecture, designed to meet Financial Action Task Force standards, has made the ED one of the most powerful agencies in the country and one that continues to draw intense scrutiny over both its reach and its results.
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