Attachment, seizure and confiscation, etc., of property in a contracting State or India

Section 60 of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 deals with attachment, seizure and confiscation, etc., of property in a contracting State or India. Where the Director has made an order for attachment of any [property under section 5 or for freezing under sub-section (1A) of section 17 or where an Adjudicating Authority has made an order relating to a property under section 8 or where a Special Court has made an order of confiscation relating to The Act came into force on 01 Jul 2005.

(1) Where the Director has made an order for attachment of any ¹[property under section 5 or for freezing under sub-section (1A) of section 17 or where an Adjudicating Authority has made an order relating to a property under section 8 or where a Special Court has made an order of confiscation relating to a property under sub-section (5) or sub section (6) of section 8] and such property is suspected to be in a contracting State, the Special Court, on an application by the Director or the Administrator appointed under sub-section (1) of section 10, as the case may be , may issue a letter of request to a court or an authority in the contracting State for execution of such order.

(2) Where a letter of request is received by the Central Government from a court or an authority in a contracting State requesting ²[attachment, seizure, freezing or confiscation] of the property in India, derived or obtained, directly or indirectly, by any person from the commission of an offence under ³[a corresponding law] committed in that contracting State, the Central Government may forward such letter of request to the Director, as it thinks fit, for execution in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

⁴[(2A) Where on closure of the criminal case or conclusion of trial in a criminal court outside India under the corresponding law of any other country, such court finds that the offence of money-laundering under the corresponding law of that country has been committed, the ⁵[Special Court] shall, on receipt of an application from the Director for execution of confiscation under sub-section (2), order, after giving notice to the affected persons, that such property involved in money-laundering or which has been used for commission of the offence of money-laundering stand confiscated to the Central Government.

(3) The Director shall, on receipt of a letter of request under section 58 or section 59, direct any authority under this Act to take all steps necessary for tracing and identifying such property.

(4) The steps referred to in sub-section (3) may include any inquiry, investigation or survey in respect of any person, place, property, assets, documents, books of account in any bank or public financial institutions or any other relevant matters.

(5) Any inquiry, investigation or survey referred to in sub-section (4) shall be carried out by an authority mentioned in sub-section (3) in accordance with such directions issued in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

(6) The provisions of this Act relating to attachment, adjudication, confiscation and vesting of property in the Central Government contained in Chapter III and survey, searches and seizures contained in Chapter V shall apply to the property in respect of which letter of request is received from a court or contracting State for attachment or confiscation of property.

⁵[(7) When any property in India is confiscated as a result of execution of a request from a contracting State in accordance with the provisions of this Act, the Central Government may either return such property to the requesting State or compensate that State by disposal of such property on mutually agreed terms that would take into account deduction for reasonable expenses incurred in investigation, prosecution or judicial proceedings leading to the return or disposal of confiscated property.]

Section 60, The Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 (Act 15 of 2003).