Social activists say laws need to be tightened to curb rising money laundering.
Complaints are coming in daily about frauds, lottery tickets, financial institution frauds, claiming to work in foreign and government offices, college seats, bank loans, high interest on low investment.
In the last one month alone, about 700 cases of money laundering have been registered across tamil Nadu. police, lawyers, and social activists have commented on the cause of the increase in money laundering and ways to prevent it.
Laws that are not strict
A crime branch police officer investigating the fraud case said, "The main reason is that the laws are not strict, even though the public lacks awareness."
They swindle millions and spend a few lakhs on it to get bail. For example, they commit fraud of Rs 1 crore, of which Rs 30 lakh is spent on litigation. They are happy to keep the rest of the money after release. The fraudsters are well aware of this.
Seizure of assets
Prosecutor Durai said the sentence handed down by the court to the culprit in the stamp duty scam (Rs 30,000 crore) that rocked the country was only 7 years imprisonment.
The fraudulent money was not fully confiscated. Victims in cases like the Rs 1,500 crore scam of a popular computer company and the Rs 1,200 crore scam of a financial institution have yet to get justice.
Sections 406 and 420 of the indian Penal Code can be used to confiscate the property of a fraudster and hand it over to the victim. But none of the police officers does that.
List of criminals
"In addition to confiscating the assets of the fraudster, we must confiscate the assets of all those who have blood ties to that person and hand them over to the victims," say social activists.
Any political party should not recognize fraudulent names.
