Mumbai: ‘Time is a crucial element in economic offences’

The delay by the banks to provide statement of accounts in the Amber Dalal case to the Economic Offences Wing EOW has highlighted the essence of time in white collar crimes Besides the procedural delays in getting sanctions for attachments of assets are also counterproductive to provide justice to the duped depositorsldquoIt is high time that information sought is shared within no time as these are crucial ingredients for the forensic auditors to trace the money trail And if not detected immediately it will only make the probe a futile exercise as tracing identifying and recovery procedures will be derailedrdquo said Nishith Mishra joint commissioner of police EOW Mumbai police He said with digitisation and core banking information stored in data banks and cloud servers could be easily assessed but for reasons best known to the banks EOW is yet to the entire information sought by themldquoUsually in case of a white collar fraud significant time would have passed before the victims approach police and most of the money is siphoned off by the time the FIR is registered Therefore the main objective of The Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors MPID Act 1999 is to refund the victims but it takes years by the time the case reaches a logical conclusion in the court of lawrdquo said MishraConcern areaHighlighting the area of concern Mishra said ldquoThe procedural delay from the time of receiving the complaint to registering of FIR the accusedperpetrators get enough time to siphon off the illgotten wealth either routing the funds through shell companies or divert funds to any offshore assets with either some or no money left in the bank accounts by the time the accounts are frozenAnd we have to rely heavily on the welltrained forensic auditors who can assist us provided they get the bank statements and books of accounts of the accused and his firm which unfortunately today takes anywhere between a few days to over a fortnight irrespective of banks becoming digitisedrdquoWhen asked the way out Mishra said ldquoToday we get the realtime call data record CDR of any mobile number under surveillance and it has helped immensely in crime detection by apprehending the accused within a short span of time Similarly in white collar crimes too the banks should be directed to provide the financial statements of suspects at the earliest so that the forensic auditors can study the money trail and submit their report accordingly The delay affects the crucial money trail and subsequent pressure on the investigating police officer for filing of charge sheet within the stipulated time framerdquoNotification and attachmentIf the financial establishment is not likely to return the money to the depositors then the government may step in under section 4 of the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors MPID Act and attach the assets of the company The attachment process is preceded by recording of the reasons in writing and followed by a gazette notification as per which the assets of the company and the persons concerned are in the custody of the district collectordeputy collector The liquidation of the attached assets could be done only with a court order and the entire process is timeconsuming said MishraProactive SurveillanceIf the state government empowers the EOW it is all set to activate its EOW Intelligence wing further and take proactive surveillance on suspicious schemes which might be vulnerable and probability of duping gullible investors especially from the middle and lower middleclass spectrum of the society primafacie cannot be ruled out pointed out MishraHe said ldquoWe need to have a preventive mechanism in place ndash for instance NBFC NonBanking Financial Company has the license as per RBI norms and are incorporated under the statute to lend money and people can invest money with them as they are secured However our concern is about individuals operating without license or is operating an unincorporated body assuring high returns varying from over 1 per cent to 3 per cent monthly and luring the public to invest in their schemesrdquoldquoWe are keen to have a data bank of such scheme operators assuring high rates of returns over 1 per cent to 3 per cent monthly to lure investors which is unrealistic and the probability of they investors getting duped at some point in time cannot be ruled out With the help of the local police station we will collect additional inputs and after a detailed analysis prepare confidential report and with approval of appropriate authority for issuing appropriate directions including raising red flags and cautioning the public from investing in such lucrative schemesldquoThe criminal justice process in case of a white collar crime can be set in motion only on receiving a complaint or in case of an offence is committed and not otherwiserdquo replied Mishra when asked for the reason for not taking suo motu action on such entitiesQuotelsquoIt is high time that information sought are shared within no time as these are crucial ingredients for the forensic auditors to trace the money trail And if not detected immediately it will only make the probe a futile exercise as tracing identifying and recovery procedures will be derailedrsquoNishith Mishra joint commissioner of police EOW Mumbai police