NEW DELHI: Broadening the definition of "property" under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, a special PMLA court in Mohali has ruled that seized bank cheques, even if not encashed, and narcotics both fall under the definition of "property" and constitute proceeds of crime under the money laundering Act.The judgement came Thursday, when ED launched a massive search operation at 30 premises across all zones of the southern region in different narcotics-related cases. The searches are being conducted under the mandate of Centre's 'Nasha Mukt Bharat' campaign with targets in the first phase spread across Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.The judge convicted two accused and sentenced them to rigorous imprisonment for three years, while rejecting the contention of the defence that their property and bank accounts were not attached and the seized contraband could not be considered proceeds of crime as no money trail had been brought on the record.Special judge Hardip Singh also rejected the defence's argument that the cheques recovered from the accused were not encashed and thus could not constitute proceeds of crime. The judge noted that the cheques were exchanged for the purpose of purchasing the contraband and the accused could not provide any explanation to the contrary.Starting with the four southern states, ED Thursday began a crackdown on major drug syndicates operating across the country.

The drive has been launched as part of Centre's "drug-free India" campaign to attach properties of all those engaged in drug dealing and generation of "proceeds of crime". The ED's search covered targets involved in trafficking of illicit drugs like methamphetamine, marijuana, and MDMA.

Over 20 foreign nationals are under scanner, an official said.Searches were conducted at premises in Chennai, Tirunelveli, Nagapattinam, Velankanni and Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu; Kolar, Malur (Kolar district) and Hoskote (Bengaluru North district); Serilingampally and Nanakramguda (Hyderabad) and Ranga Reddy district in Telangana; Kozhikode, Kannur, Malappuram and Thrissur in Kerala.ED is coordinating with other central agencies and state police forces that have registered cases of drug trafficking in the past few years to further investigate the money trail and track the proceeds of crime."The investigation prima facie discloses not merely trafficking of methamphetamine, but also the generation, receipt and movement of money arising out of this," a senior official said, adding that syndicates were using hawala and crypto currency dealers to further transfer the proceeds of crime outside the country to tax havens.

The money trail to uncover cash-based hawala settlements revealed "account details, transaction records, diaries, slips or tokens, mobile phones, electronic communications and digital devices, property documents and other financial records". Based on these findings, the agency ascertained the complete quantum and trail of the proceeds of crime, and the persons who received, possessed, transferred, concealed, utilised or invested such proceeds.Further these details help in identifying movable and immovable properties acquired and that leads to their attachments.