Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal: ‘PMLA is Pradhan Mantri ki Lal Aankh’

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal asserted that the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) actually stands for “Pradhan Mantri ki Lal Ankh” (PM’s glare) and is unrelated to money laundering.

“PMLA is Pradhan Mantri ki Lak Aankh. It has nothing to do with Prevention of Money Laundering Act. It means you can send them over to ED who can do whatever they wish to do,” Sibal remarked during a candid discussion with ANI.

Sibal explained his reasoning behind calling the PMLA an arbitrary law, highlighting that the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), the agency responsible for enforcing economic laws, can arrest any suspect based on oral statements alone.

“If you want to catch anyone, you can send him over to ED and then take the oral statement of anyone. The person can say anything orally, claiming to whom any random property belongs, and based on his statement, the accused is arrested. The case is then left hanging,” Sibal elaborated.

He also pointed out another method of arrest under PMLA: “There are several ways of doing it. One of them is, you can go to a place that has land measuring five acres or two acres. You can take anyone’s statement claiming that this five or two-acre land belongs to the Chief Minister. You do not have any evidence. You serve a notice to the Chief Minister. You do not disclose the statement. You tell the Chief Minister that this land belongs to him, to which he disagrees. Following this, he is arrested. This is what is happening. Therefore it is Pradhan Mantri ki Lak Aankh,” he said.

The Senior Advocate also mentioned that sometimes the ED does not even have an “approver.” An approver is an accomplice who becomes a witness after the court grants them pardon in return for their testimony against another.

Sibal claimed that in some cases, the person who gives the oral statement later becomes an “approver” after multiple prior statements. “The approver comes only in his twelfth statement. In the initial statements, he did not take any name. He became the approver in his twelfth statement and he gave the money,” he noted.

Explaining why he previously referred to the PMLA as a “Frankenstein monster,” Sibal argued that the money laundering law is merely a “strong arm” of the government, used to arrest individuals based solely on oral statements.

“It is a strong arm of the government. It has nothing to do with law enforcement. There is no evidence against (Arvind) Kejriwal, or (Manish) Sisodia or (Satyendar) Jain. There is no money trail. Nobody says how much money is given to whom. There is no bank account or anything. There are just oral statements of people,” the Rajya Sabha MP said.

When asked why courts do not easily grant bail to those arrested under PMLA, Sibal responded, “Ask the courts. I keep on asking. I don’t get any response.”

The Opposition has frequently accused the Narendra Modi government of misusing central investigating agencies like the ED to target and harass political opponents.