Your complete, plain-language guide to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Start here to understand how the ED works — the ECIR, summons, search, arrest, attachment, bail and trial — and follow the links to detailed guides on each stage, plus case laws, compliance, and answers to the questions people ask most.
A single, verified reference for the case law that governs every PMLA matter. This digest collects 50+ landmark Supreme Court and High Court judgments — each with the case name, brief facts, the sections involved, and the ratio laid down — organised by theme, from the constitutional foundation in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary to the arrest safeguards of Pankaj Bansal and Arvind Kejriwal, the bail jurisprudence of Manish Sisodia, and the disclosure and cognizance rulings of Sarla Gupta and Kushal Kumar Agarwal. Citations and ratios cross-checked against primary sources.
An ED arrest is not like a police arrest. Section 19 PMLA imposes strict preconditions — material in possession, written “reasons to believe” guilt, and written grounds of arrest served on the arrestee. Miss any one, and the arrest collapses, taking the remand down with it. Drawing from my PMLA practice, this guide traces the law from Senthil Balaji and Pankaj Bansal to Prabir Purkayastha and Arvind Kejriwal (with judgment links), lists the defects that make an arrest illegal, and sets out exactly what the family and counsel must do in the first 24 hours.
The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 arms the Enforcement Directorate with extraordinary powers — to summon, search, attach, and arrest. This cornerstone guide introduces PMLA and ED law in India in plain language. It explains the offence of money laundering under Section 3, proceeds of crime and scheduled offences, the ECIR, arrest safeguards under Section 19, attachment and confiscation, the Section 45 twin conditions for bail, and trial before Special Courts. Every concept is backed by verified Supreme Court rulings — from Vijay Madanlal Choudhary and Pankaj Bansal to Tarsem Lal and Manish Sisodia — making this the starting point of our complete PMLA series.