Author: Siddhant Nayak, Student at KIIT School of Law, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar
ABSTRACT
International financial crime status of money laundering results in severe damage to both national economic stability and integrity. The Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 became Indian legislation for preventing criminal financial streams and illicit funds. The research investigates how PMLA follows anti-money laundering regulations by stopping money laundering transactions between finance and law enforcement bodies.
This analysis evaluates every essential aspect within PMLA and incorporates both legal enforcement frameworks from a judicial standards viewpoint alongside financial regulatory network maintenance. This paper investigates financial institutions’ enforcement procedures along with studying how Enforcement Directorate (ED) executes PMLA compliance together with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) regulatory entities. The paper examines PMLA application decisions through judicial research that includes money laundering interpretation and proof elements as well as bail liberties and PMLA’s constitutional challenges.
Research articles demonstrate that tough bail rules form the primary obstacles in implementation due to improper law enforcement use combined with procedural rights violations. The study uses an evaluation framework to check whether Indian money laundering regulations meet Financial Action Task Force (FATF) global evaluation criteria.
The PMLA system achieves improved unlawful funds identification and seizure operation even while facing technical difficulties because of its dual focus on protecting constitutional rights as well as fulfilling regulatory tasks. The suggested policy changes to enhance PMLA efficiency include better transparency measures together with enhanced regulatory collaboration and more effective anti-corruption measures.
The study enhances expert dialog about financial crime safeguards as well as legal reforms which affect India’s economic and legal environments.
Keywords: Money Laundering, Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002, Financial Crimes, Enforcement Directorate, Financial Intelligence Unit, Anti-Money Laundering, FATF Compliance, Regulatory Challenges.
