Money laundering real threat to financial system with advancement of technology, AI: Supreme Court

New Delhi, November 20

Highlighting the dangers of artificial intelligence, the Supreme Court on Monday said that with the advancement of technology, economic offences such as money laundering have become a real threat to the financial system of the country.

A Bench of Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Bela M Trivedi dismissed the bail plea of a money laundering case accused Tarun Kumar, an employee of Shakti Bhog Foods Limited, saying economic offences had serious repercussions on the development of the country as a whole.

The accused has to prima facie prove that he is not guilty of the alleged offence and was not likely to commit any offence while on bail, it said.

“With the advancement of technology and artificial intelligence, the economic offences like money laundering have become a real threat to the functioning of the financial system of the country and have become a great challenge for the investigating agencies to detect and comprehend the intricate nature of transactions, as also the role of the persons involved therein,” it said.

“A lot of minute exercise is expected to be undertaken by the investigating agency to see that no innocent person is wrongly booked and that no culprit escapes from the clutches of the law,” the Bench added.

“The economic offences having deep-rooted conspiracies and involving huge loss of public funds need to be viewed seriously and considered as grave offences affecting the economy of the country as a whole and thereby posing serious threat to the financial health of the country,” it noted.

The money laundering case against the company—which was into manufacturing and selling wheat, flour, rice, biscuits, cookies, etc.—was based on a CBI FIR that accused them of criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal misconduct.