ED eyes software to access other agencies’ data for probe
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is working on a software named CEDOS (Core ED Operations System), through which its officers will be able to access data of other agencies to quickly identify potential financial irregularities as well as find linkages in ongoing money laundering probes.
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is working on a software named CEDOS (Core ED Operations System), through which its officers will be able to access data of other agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), among others, to quickly identify potential financial irregularities as well as find linkages in ongoing money laundering probes, people familiar with the development said.
CEDOS will help ED officers conduct online search on individuals, transactions, cases, supporting documents and underlying data. It will maintain a database of all intelligence received from other law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and ongoing cases of the ED so that a consolidated database could be created, including details of individual bank accounts, corporate entities, mobile numbers, PAN/Aadhar Number/CIN, etc., they said.
“Not only this project will enable smooth and fast coordination between the ED and various domestic predicate agencies and the FIU and NATGRID, but ED officers will also have access to databases of various domestic agencies, which will enable us to verify facts in real time which would have otherwise taken weeks to months,” said an officer, who didn’t want to be named. “It will help us in having a ready-made database to refer back or to provide linkages as and when they come in contact with ED during any new investigation.”
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The artificial intelligence used in this project, said a second officer, will save time taken in various processes and would fasten the pace of the money laundering investigations. A detailed project report has been submitted by a top consultant to the agency, officials said.
ED’s offices across the country have already been connected with the CCTNS/ICJS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System/Interoperable Criminal Justice System), which is a repository of the First Information Reports (FIRs) registered across the country.
All the potential cases of money laundering are identified online through logging into CCTNS/ICJS portal and the cases that do not fall under the mandatory criteria are examined by a Risk Assessment Monitoring Committee (RAMC) of the ED, which holds meetings every quarter through video conference, the second officer said, seeking anonymity.
The job of RAMC is to ensure a “risk-based approach” in consonance with the global money laundering watchdog FATF (Financial Action Task Force) standards so that certain cases should mandatorily be investigated and certain cases should be taken up based on amount involved.
Besides, since it seizes a large number of digital devices such as hard disks and mobile phones during searches, the ED now has six cyber labs and is working on seventh to retrieve data from digital devices within four to five days, a task which would earlier take two to six months, according to the first officer.
The federal agency has been increasing its capabilities as number of cases registered by it have gone up manifold. The ED registered 3,555 PMLA cases between April 2014 and March this year, out of a total of 5,422 cases registered till date, according to information shared by junior finance minister Pankaj Chaudhary in Parliament earlier this year. Of these, the highest (1,180) were registered in 2021-22.
The ED has also recently sought to treble its strength from current 2,100 officers to 6,000 as well as sought government’s approval to open a zonal office in every state capital; and two in some big states such as Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, HT has earlier reported. It currently operates through 21 zonal and 18 subzonal offices across five regions – West, East, Central,South and North -- apart from specialized Headquarters Investigation Units and Special Task Forces.
