Novation Legal advises promoters, directors and corporates facing investigations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and parallel enquiries by SEBI, SFIO, CBI, EOW and DRI. Our partner-led team handles every stage of an enforcement matter — from the first summons to provisional attachment, prosecution complaint, trial and appellate review.
Founding Managing Partner Abhishek Saxena is recognised by IR Global as the only White-Collar Crime Partner for India in the network spanning 155+ jurisdictions. The firm operates a single war-room model coordinating civil, criminal and regulatory defence under one strategic frame.
An appearance under Section 50 of the PMLA is not an interview — it is a sworn deposition. Anything you say is admissible in evidence against you in the trial that may follow. Statements once recorded cannot be retracted on the bare assertion that they were involuntary; the burden of disproving voluntariness lies with the deponent.
Before any appearance, we conduct intensive briefing covering: predicate offence mapping, document chronology, factual matrix reconciliation, Sec 132 of the Evidence Act protections, scope of self-incrimination, and the precise boundary between informational and evidentiary disclosure. We also coordinate with parallel proceedings to ensure no inconsistency arises across forums.
A Section 5 provisional attachment order can freeze property believed to be the proceeds of crime for up to 180 days, pending confirmation by the Adjudicating Authority. The window to challenge attachment is statutory and unforgiving. We file confirmation responses, OAs before the Adjudicating Authority, appeals to the Appellate Tribunal under PMLA, and writ petitions at the Delhi High Court where the attachment exceeds the contours permitted by law.
Our untainted-source defence is built around three pillars — provenance evidence, audit trail integrity and predicate offence dissociation. Where the predicate offence is itself disputed, we move on parallel tracks to neutralise the basis of attachment.
Section 45 PMLA imposes twin conditions on bail — the public prosecutor must be heard, and the court must be satisfied the accused is not guilty and is unlikely to commit a similar offence. We have argued bail and anticipatory bail applications across the Delhi High Court, Patiala House Special Court, Rouse Avenue and the Supreme Court. Our approach is preparation-led: every application carries a full chronology, documentary defence and reverse-burden response built before the application is moved.
Enforcement matters rarely sit in one forum. A SEBI investigation can spawn an ED proceeding via the predicate offence route; an SFIO inspection can trigger CBI scrutiny; a tax search can produce ED inputs. We map every parallel risk on day one and coordinate a single defensive theory across all of them — preventing inconsistent statements, avoiding admissions by conduct, and synchronising filings so no forum is surprised by another's disclosure.
Every matter is handled by a partner with end-to-end accountability. Book a confidential consultation in the strictest BCI compliance.