The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has returned assets worth over ₹63,000 crore to victims, accounting for about 27% of the ₹2.36 lakh crore it has attached so far under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
A major chunk of money has been returned to the individual investors or victim banks in high-profile cases involving Vijay Mallya (₹14,131 crore), Pearl group (₹15,582 crore), Sterling Biotech Ltd probe (₹9,811 crore), Mehul Choksi (₹2,565 crore), and Nirav Modi (₹1,112 crore).
The ED data suggests that the agency didn’t even consider restoring attached proceeds of crime (PoCs) to the victims from 2005 (when PMLA came into effect) to 2019 and everything it seized became case property and remained in court’s custody till the trial was over.
The restitution, allowed under section 8 of the Act, first began in 2019-20, when total assets worth ₹1,613 crore were returned to the banks and other victims.
As of December 2025, ED has registered 8,391 money laundering cases across the country. However, the courts have delivered judgements in only 58 cases, out of which conviction orders have been passed in 55 cases convicting 123 accused persons.
