In brief
A CBI or ED case is not an ordinary FIR with a different letterhead. The search, the summons, and the arrest are run by agencies with their own statutes, and the defence has to be ready before the first statement is signed.
Discuss this matter
CBI
Corruption, bribery, and the economic offences the bureau investigates.
ED
Money laundering, FEMA, and the attachment that often comes with them.
The first day
Search, summons, arrest, bail, and what is said on the record.
The brief
What clients ask us
Choose a question. The answer sets out the work we actually take in this practice, in plain language.
Answer
The bureau investigates a defined class of offences. The defence starts by reading the FIR against that jurisdiction, and against the documents the search actually took.
- Corruption and bribery
- Economic offences under CBI investigation
- Other criminal offences the bureau has taken up
- White-collar crime investigated by the agency
What CBI matters do you defend?
Answer
The bureau investigates a defined class of offences. The defence starts by reading the FIR against that jurisdiction, and against the documents the search actually took.
- Corruption and bribery
- Economic offences under CBI investigation
- Other criminal offences the bureau has taken up
- White-collar crime investigated by the agency
What does an ED case involve?
Answer
An Enforcement Directorate proceeding is often about the money after the crime, not only about the crime itself. The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, and FEMA where that is the allegation, are read on their own terms.
- Money laundering under the PMLA
- Alleged violations of FEMA
- Other financial irregularities the directorate is examining
- A plain explanation of what the PMLA requires the accused to meet
What should happen during a search, a summons, or an arrest?
Answer
The agency is entitled to investigate. The person searched is entitled to a record of what was taken, and to advice before a statement hardens into the prosecution case.
- Presence and advice during search and seizure
- Summons
- Arrest, and the production that must follow
- A list of what was seized, checked against what is later relied on
How do you build the defence?
Answer
From the predicate offence, the money trail the complaint describes, and the statements already on the file. A defence written without those papers is a speech.
- Strategy against the charges as framed
- Bail
- Appeals in CBI and ED cases
- Petitions to quash an FIR or a chargesheet, where the record supports one
Can anything be done before a raid?
Answer
Sometimes the risk is visible: a related FIR, a summons to a colleague, a transaction the company cannot explain. Advice at that stage is about the documents and the answers, not about concealing either.
- A reading of the exposure under the PMLA and the penal law
- What a company should be able to produce if it is asked tomorrow
- Advice that reduces the chance of an answer being given carelessly
The path
How a matter moves
01
What has arrived
FIR, ECIR, summons, or a search list: the document decides the next 48 hours.
02
Liberty and the statement
Bail is moved if custody is the risk. No statement is settled without a reading of what the agency already has.
03
The record
Seized documents, accounts, and the predicate offence are mapped into a defence.
04
Charge and appeal
We defend the charge, and we challenge the FIR or the order where the law allows it.
Before you instruct us
Questions on this practice
I have received a summons from the ED. Should I attend?
Yes, on the date, and with advice beforehand. Non-appearance becomes its own problem. So does a statement given without having read the papers.
Can you be present for a search?
We attend when we are instructed in time. Ask for the search to be recorded, and do not sign a seizure memo you have not been allowed to read.
Is every ED case a money-laundering case?
No. FEMA proceedings and PMLA proceedings are different. The letter will tell you which one it is. Send the letter rather than a description of it.
Can an FIR by the CBI be quashed?
It can be challenged where it does not disclose an offence or where the investigation is an abuse of process. It is not quashed because the allegation is inconvenient.
Will you coordinate with the company's other lawyers?
Yes. A CBI brief, a company-law brief, and a tax brief on the same facts need one account of those facts. We will work from a shared set of papers.
These answers describe the practice. They are not advice on the facts of your matter.
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