PREVENTION OF MONEY LAUNDERING ACT (PMLA)

Key changes: 

• An explanation added to Section 45 clarifies that all PMLA offences will be cognisable and non-bailable. Therefore, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers are empowered to arrest an accused without warrant, subject to certain conditions.
  
  
• Amendment to Section 3 makes concealment of proceeds of crime, possession, acquisition, use, projecting as untainted money, or claiming as untainted property as independent and complete offences under the Act.
  
  
• It deletes the provisos in sub-sections (1) of Section 17 (Search and Seizure) and Section 18 (Search of Persons), thus doing away with the pre-requisite of an FIR or chargesheet by other agencies that are authorised to probe the offences listed in the PMLA schedule.
  
  
• Now, under Section 44, the Special Court, while dealing with the offence under this Act shall not be dependent upon any orders passed in respect of the scheduled offence, and the trial of both sets of offences by the same court shall not be construed as joint trial.
  
  
• The scope of “proceeds of crime”, under Section 2, has been expanded to empower the agency to act against even those properties which “may directly or indirectly be derived or obtained as a result of any criminal activity relatable to the scheduled offence”.