The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is conducting searches at 14 premises across multiple states as part of a money laundering investigation into alleged fraudulent toll collection at National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) toll plazas. The operations are carried out under Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, and focus on recovering digital and documentary evidence.
According to the ED, the probe stems from an FIR registered on January 22, 2025, and an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) registered on May 19, 2025. The searches involve locations in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Jammu, Madhya Pradesh, the National Capital Region (NCR) and Kolkata, with agencies describing the alleged mechanism as the use of unauthorized software to generate fake toll receipts and divert toll collections outside official accounting systems.
Outlet coverage is largely aligned on the scale of the searches, the PMLA legal basis, and the allegation of software-aided toll diversion. Differences are limited to the level of detail provided about the evidentiary basis and the specific scope of recovery, with both emphasizing that further investigation is underway and that identifying information about premises or individuals is not disclosed in the reports.
