ASEAN-India Business Summit
Recently, the Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology has addressed the 5th ASEAN-India Business summit.
About the ASEAN-India Business summit -
It is being held as part of the ASEAN-India Year of Friendship to commemorate the more than three-decade-long engagement between India and the 10-member bloc in Kuala Lumpur.
About ASEAN -
- It is a group of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which was established in 1967 with the signing of the Bangkok declaration.
- Founding members — Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
- Presently ASEAN comprises 10 member states namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.
- It promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational, and sociocultural integration between its members and other countries in Asia.
Cryptocurrency
The government has imposed money laundering provisions on cryptocurrencies or virtual assets as it looks to tighten oversight of digital assets.
- In a gazette notification, the Finance Ministry said the anti-money laundering legislation has been applied to crypto trading, safekeeping and related financial services.
- After this, Indian crypto exchanges will have to report suspicious activity to the Financial Intelligence Unit India (FIU-IND).
- The move is in line with the global trend of requiring digital-asset platforms to follow anti-money laundering standards similar to those followed by other regulated entities like banks or stock brokers.
About cryptocurrencies -
- Cryptocurrencies are digital or virtual currencies in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of their units and verify the transfer of funds.
- These currencies operate independently of a central bank.
- The economic transactions underlying cryptocurrency are decentralised, distributed and disbursed.
- The first and most famous cryptocurrency, bitcoin was introduced in 2009.
Technology —
- Most cryptocurrencies of the world are built on blockchain technology.
- Blockchain is a decentralised and distributed database on a peer-peer network which works on the basis of a consensus mechanism involving every node (computer) on the network.
- Blockchain is a peer-to-peer distributed network that records a public history of transactions without actually recording identities of the parties or the transaction details.
About the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 -
- PMLA was enacted to curb money laundering and to provide for seizure of property derived from money-laundering.
Objective -
- To prevent and control money laundering.
- To confiscate and seize the property derived from, or involved in, money laundering.
- To provide punishment for the offense of money laundering.
- To appoint the Adjudicating Authority and Appellate Tribunal to deal with the matter connected with money laundering.
- To put obligations on banking companies, financial institutions, and intermediaries to maintain records.
- To deal with any other issue connected with money laundering in India.
- The act has undergone various critical changes from time to time in order to give itself more strength and meaning. The latest amendment was done in 2019.
- For example, the definition of Money Laundering under the act was broadened via amendments done in 2012 and again in 2019.
- PMLA empowers certain officers of the Directorate of Enforcement to carry out investigations in cases involving the offence of money laundering and also to attach the property involved in money laundering.
Police and Judicial Custody
Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court has sent former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to judicial custody till March 20 in connection with a corruption case related to alleged irregularities in the now-scrapped excise policy.
Background -
In India, the various procedures of the administration of the criminal law are governed by the legislation called the Code of Criminal Procedure or Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which came into force in 1973, after its enactment building up on the British era legislation.
Provisions of arrest -
- Chapter 5 of the CrPC starting from section 41 lists the legal provisions about the arrest.
- Arrest primarily means putting restrictions on the movement of a person. It can be done by a police officer or officer of investigating agency if the officer is satisfied that the arrest is necessary: to prevent the person from committing the offence further, to prevent tampering if evidence, for proper investigation, to prevent the person from dissuading those acquainted with facts and more.
- As per the provisions, an arrested person has the right to be informed about grounds of arrest and there is obligation on the person making the arrest, to inform about the arrest, to a nominated person. Arrested person also has the right to meet an advocate of choice during interrogation. The law also makes an examination by a medical practitioner mandatory after the arrest.
- The arresting authority can not detain a person in custody for more than 24 hours without producing him or her before a magistrate as per section 57 of CrPC.
- The Article 22 of the Constitution of India also has provisions for protection of a person during arrest of detention.
What is ‘police custody’ and ‘judicial custody’?
- Whenever a person is arrested by police or investigating agency and detained in custody and if the investigation can not be completed in 24 hours, the person is mandated to be produced before a magistrate court. The section 167 of CrPC and subsequent provisions lay down procedures that may follow in various scenarios.
- The magistrate may further remand the person to custody of police for a period not more than 15 days as a whole. The police custody means that the person is confined at a lock up or remains in the custody of the officer.
- After lapse of 15 days or the police custody period granted by the magistrate, the person may be further remanded to judicial custody. Judicial custody means that the person is detained under the purview of the judicial magistrate is lodged in central or state prison.
- Section 167 also has some amendments which are specific to individual states in the country.
- In some cases investigation agencies may not seek police custody immediately and one of the reasons can be judicious use of the maximum 15 days at their disposal. In some cases courts may directly remand a person to judicial custody, if the court concludes that there is no need of police custody or extension of police custody.
- In judicial custody, the person can apply for a bail as per the CrPC chapter 33 pertaining to the bails and bonds. The judicial custody can extend up to 60 or 90 days as a whole, depending upon the maximum punishment prescribed for the offence.
- An undertrial person can not remain in judicial custody beyond half the time period of prescribed maximum punishment.
Difference between the judicial custody and police custody -
- • Apart from basic differences pertaining to the purview and place of detention there are some basic differences between the two.
- In police custody, the investigating authority can interrogate a person while in judicial custody, officials need permission of the court for questioning.
- In police custody, the person has the right to legal counsel, right to be informed of the grounds which the police have to ensure.
- In the judicial custody in jails, while the person under responsibility of the magistrate, the Prison Manual comes into picture for routine conduct of the person.
