ClawScore · ED and PMLA Exposure
How to Check ED / PMLA Exposure of a Person or Company (2026)
An Enforcement Directorate case is among the most serious things that can attach to a person or company, and among the hardest to check, because the early stage is deliberately private. The ED enforces the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, and begins with an Enforcement Case Information Report, the ECIR, which is not a public document. So checking ED or PMLA exposure is not about searching the investigation, which you cannot do, but about finding the points where a PMLA matter reaches a court or a tribunal and becomes public: an attachment order, a prosecution complaint, a bail matter or an appeal. This guide explains those points, where they show, and why a finding here must be handled with special care. Last verified October 2026.
- The investigation is private: the ECIR is confidential, so you cannot search who the ED is investigating.
- Search the public touchpoints: Section 5 attachment and its confirmation, the Section 3 complaint before the Special Court, Appellate Tribunal appeals, and bail and writs in the High Courts.
- Allegation, not guilt: an attachment or complaint is under test; only a conviction establishes the offence.
- Verify identity: a shared name in a money-laundering context is damaging, so match confidence and confirmation matter most here.
01The short answer
You cannot search an ED investigation, because the ECIR that starts it is confidential and there is no public register of who is under investigation. What you can search are the public court and tribunal records a PMLA matter generates: a provisional attachment of property under Section 5 and its confirmation by the Adjudicating Authority, a prosecution complaint before the Special Court for the money-laundering offence under Section 3, appeals before the PMLA Appellate Tribunal, and bail and attachment challenges in the High Courts and the Supreme Court under provisions such as Section 45.
Search the person and the company by name across those forums, confirm identity carefully because a common name is easy to confuse, and treat any finding as serious but unproven unless there is a conviction. See how to check economic offences against a company or director.
02Why the early stage is invisible
PMLA enforcement starts quietly by design. The ED records an ECIR, which the courts have treated as an internal document that need not be shared the way an FIR is. There is no public list of ECIRs, no public register of persons summoned, and no way to search who is being investigated.
This means a person or company can be under active ED investigation with nothing visible on any public record. The matter surfaces only when the ED takes a step that goes before a court or a tribunal, which is why those steps, not the investigation, are what you search.
03Where PMLA matters become public
A PMLA matter touches the public record at defined points:
| Step | Provision | What it signals |
|---|---|---|
| Provisional attachment | Section 5 | The ED has attached property it alleges is proceeds of crime |
| Confirmation | Adjudicating Authority | The attachment is tested and confirmed or set aside |
| Prosecution complaint | Section 3 offence, Special Court | A formal charge of money laundering is before the court |
| Appeal | Appellate Tribunal | An attachment or order is being challenged |
| Bail and writs | High Courts and Supreme Court | Arrest, bail under Section 45, and challenges to ED action |
For the building blocks, see the Section 3 money-laundering offence, Section 5 attachment, Section 45 bail and PMLA bail and attachment.
04Where to look
Run the search across the PMLA forums and the connected courts:
- The Adjudicating Authority and the Appellate Tribunal, for attachment confirmations and appeals.
- The Special Courts, for prosecution complaints on the money-laundering offence.
- The High Courts and the Supreme Court, for bail, quashing and attachment challenges, searchable by party.
Search both the individual and any company tied to them, because a PMLA case often names a person and a web of companies together. Confirm the person's identity with care; a shared name is a real risk in this area, where a false positive is seriously damaging.
05Reading a finding responsibly
A PMLA finding carries weight and consequences, so read it carefully and fairly:
- Stage. An attachment or a complaint is an allegation being tested, not a finding of guilt. Only a conviction by the Special Court establishes the offence.
- Outcome. An attachment set aside, or a matter quashed by the High Court, is very different from one confirmed or upheld.
- Identity. Make sure the person named is actually your subject and not a namesake, because the stakes of getting it wrong are high.
- Connection. Whether your subject is an accused, a witness or merely mentioned matters, and the cause title does not always make that clear.
An attachment order is a serious signal, but it is an allegation under test. The difference between accused and convicted is the whole difference, and it must be stated honestly.
06What a clean result actually means
A clean ED or PMLA check means no public court or tribunal matter was found on the forums you searched, on the date you searched, under the names you used. Because the ECIR and the investigation stage are confidential, this is the weakest clean result of any exposure type: your subject could be under active investigation with nothing on any public record, and a step could be filed the next day.
Equally, a match must be verified before it is relied on, because a shared name can wrongly tag an innocent person, and an allegation is not a conviction. Record what you covered, state the stage of any finding plainly, confirm identity, and do not treat a clean search as a clearance. This is research to inform a decision, not legal advice, and a PMLA question in particular should go to counsel.
07Where Claw fits
Claw is an all-in-one legaltech platform for Indian advocates, law firms, and corporate legal teams, combining AI-based case search, an AI legal assistant (Legal GPT), case management, and compliance automation across all Indian courts and tribunals.
ClawScore, at clawscore.clawlaw.in, is Claw's litigation and criminal-risk service, and it surfaces the public PMLA touchpoints a person or company leaves in the courts and tribunals in one pass. You give it a name and it searches every matter across 9,102 courts, benches and forums, the High Courts, the Supreme Court and the courts hearing PMLA matters among them, and returns one scored Excel workbook: a Summary tab with a ClawScore risk band (Clean, Low, Moderate or High), a Matters tab, a Related parties tab that ties an individual to the companies named with them, and a Coverage tab recording what was searched. Every finding carries a MATCH CONFIDENCE, which matters most here, because a shared name in a money-laundering context is damaging and must be verified, not assumed. Its Constant Monitoring runs daily, weekly or monthly scans on a watched entity list and reports what is New, Changed or Closed, so a fresh attachment or complaint is caught early. It draws on 30 crore+ judgments, with Supreme Court decisions from 1950 and High Court decisions from 1990, and returns results in under 5 seconds. Claw does not train its AI models on your documents. Because the ED's investigation stage is not public, a clean ClawScore result is not a clearance, and any match should be confirmed and read for its stage before you act.
Create a FREE Claw account to surface the public PMLA record for a person or company and set up monitoring, and use case search across Indian courts to search the person and the connected companies together.
08Sources and further reading
- Enforcement Directorate (mandate and PMLA information): enforcementdirectorate.gov.in
- India Code (Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, bare text): indiacode.nic.in
- eCourts Services (High Court and Special Court case status): services.ecourts.gov.in
- Claw: clawlaw.in
Government portals are the authoritative record. This guide is general information, not legal advice. A PMLA matter is a serious allegation under test until a court decides it, and identity must be confirmed before any finding is relied on.
09Frequently asked questions
Can I check if someone is under ED investigation in India?
Not directly. The Enforcement Directorate begins with an ECIR, which is confidential, and there is no public register of persons under investigation. You can only search the public court and tribunal records a PMLA matter generates once the ED takes a step such as an attachment, a prosecution complaint, an appeal or a bail matter.
Where do PMLA matters become public?
At defined points: a provisional attachment under Section 5 and its confirmation by the Adjudicating Authority, a prosecution complaint for the Section 3 offence before the Special Court, appeals before the PMLA Appellate Tribunal, and bail under Section 45 and attachment challenges in the High Courts and the Supreme Court.
Does an ED attachment mean the person is guilty?
No. An attachment or a prosecution complaint is an allegation being tested, not a finding of guilt. Only a conviction by the Special Court establishes the money-laundering offence. An attachment set aside, or a matter quashed, is very different from one confirmed, so always read the stage and the outcome.
Why is identity so important in a PMLA search?
Because a shared or similar name in a money-laundering context is seriously damaging to an innocent person. A false positive can wrongly tag someone, so a match confidence on each result and careful confirmation of identity matter more here than in almost any other exposure check.
Does a clean ED or PMLA check mean the person is clear?
No, and this is the weakest clean result of any exposure type. Because the ECIR and the investigation stage are confidential, your subject could be under active investigation with nothing on any public record, and a step could be filed later. A clean search is not a clearance, so do not treat it as one.