§ The foundation

• Contracting State, s. 55. A country or place outside India with which the Central Government has made arrangements, through a treaty or otherwise, for the purposes of the Chapter.

• Agreements, s. 56. The Central Government may enter into agreements with other countries for enforcing the Act, exchanging information to prevent offences under the Act or the corresponding foreign law, and investigating cases.

• Cross-border scheduled offences. Part C of the Schedule covers offences with cross-border implications, including conduct abroad whose proceeds come to India, and offences here whose proceeds go abroad.

s. 57: letter of request to a contracting State

During an investigation or proceeding, on the Director's application, the Special Court, if satisfied that evidence is available in a contracting State, may issue a letter of request to a court or authority there to examine persons, obtain documents or things, and forward them

s. 60(1): attachment abroad

Where an Indian authority has made an attachment or confiscation order and the property is suspected to be in a contracting State, the Special Court, on the Director's application, may issue a letter of request for its execution there

s. 58: assistance to a contracting State

Where a letter of request is received from a court or authority of a contracting State for investigation of an offence under the corresponding law, the Central Government may forward it to the Special Court or an authority for execution

s. 60(2): attachment in India

Where a contracting State requests attachment, seizure, freezing or confiscation of property in India derived from an offence under its corresponding law, the Central Government may forward the request to the Director for execution under the Act

§ Linking Indian property to a foreign trial

Section 58A: release. Where, on the closure of a criminal case or conclusion of a trial abroad under the corresponding law, the foreign court finds that laundering has not taken place or that the property in India is not involved, the Special Court, on an application, orders release of the property to the person entitled.

Section 58B: confiscation. Where the foreign court finds the offence under the corresponding law committed, the Special Court, on the Director's application for execution of the confiscation, may order the property in India involved in the laundering to be confiscated to the Central Government, after notice to affected persons.

Read with Section 60. Section 60, including its later-inserted sub-sections, provides for execution of such requests. The exact interplay of these provisions should be checked against the current text.

Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties

Bilateral treaties on criminal matters, with a central authority to send and receive requests for evidence, service and asset recovery

Letters rogatory under the BNSS

The successor to s. 166A of the old Code, for evidence abroad in criminal investigations generally

BNSS reciprocal arrangements

The successor to Chapter VIIA of the old Code, for attachment and forfeiture of proceeds in criminal cases

Egmont Group

FIU-to-FIU sharing of financial intelligence

UNCAC and Palermo Convention

Treaty obligations on mutual assistance and asset recovery, ratified by India in 2011

Interpol

Notices to locate and track persons

§ Moving people, not only property

• The Extradition Act, 1962. Extradition is based on a treaty or arrangement, and on dual criminality: the conduct must be an offence in both countries. Money laundering is extraditable where both laws punish it.

• The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018. Where a person against whom a warrant has been issued for a scheduled offence involving one hundred crore rupees or more leaves India and refuses to return, he may be declared a fugitive economic offender and his property confiscated, even in his absence.

• The division of labour. Chapter IX moves evidence and property; extradition moves people.