Bengaluru: Enforcement Directorate (ED) has set its sights on speeding up economic crime investigations, targeting a reduction in the time taken to complete probes from the present four to five years to around 18 months. The move was announced during the agency’s 36th Quarterly Conference of Zonal Officers (QCZO), held in Bengaluru on Sept 14 and 15.
A management and leadership workshop preceded the conference on Sept 13. The conference, chaired by ED director Rahul Navin at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), brought together senior officers from the agency’s headquarters and field formations. The agency also stressed the need for closer coordination with state police and other enforcement agencies to tackle organised financial crimes. The agency proposed greater information sharing with the state police, CBI, customs, DRI, NCB and SEBI. It also discussed integrating crime-reporting systems with platforms such as CCTNS and NATGRID to improve coordination and generate alerts. To tackle delays in court proceedings, ED approved measures including a live trial pendency dashboard, regular monitoring of long-pending cases and a standardised system to track the progress of prosecution complaints.