The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has written to the Punjab Police for the third time in as many weeks, pressing for the immediate registration of an FIR on the basis of money laundering-related information it had shared with the state agency over a month ago.In a letter dated August 31 addressed to the AIG, Investigation, Punjab Bureau of Investigation, the ED’s Jalandhar zonal office said it was replying to the police’s communication of August 28, in which the force had sought deputation of an authorised ED officer along with the complete record, including original electronic data, chain-of-custody documentation and statements, before registering the case.Neither the Punjab Government nor the state police has issued any comment about the third ED letter.The Central agency said the information, shared under Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, through communications dated July 30 and August 7, and an email sent the same day, had already been examined, investigated and cleared by the competent authority before being passed on. It maintained that Section 66(2) only obliged it to share such information for necessary action, and did not require the receiving agency to seek further authentication or chain-of-custody proof as a precondition for registering an FIR.Referring to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary and others, the ED contended that the jurisdictional police were duty-bound to register a case upon receiving information about a scheduled offence, irrespective of whether it was cognizable or non-cognizable. It maintained that Section 66(2) serves merely as a provision for sharing information and does not empower the police to delay or make registration contingent on receiving additional material from the ED.The letter also invoked the Constitution Bench ruling in Lalita Kumari versus Government of Uttar Pradesh (2014), which held that registration of an FIR was mandatory once information disclosed a cognizable offence, and that a preliminary inquiry, permissible only in limited categories of cases such as corruption, had to be completed within seven to 15 days. The ED said that more than 30 days had already elapsed since it first shared the material, and that no further preliminary inquiry was warranted at this stage.The communication referred to a pending public interest litigation before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, CWP-PIL-238-2026, titled Nikhil Saraf versus State of Punjab and others, in which the court, in an order dated August 27, had sought the state’s stand, with the matter listed for hearing on September 3.The ED said it was supplementing its earlier communication of July 30 with legible copies of chats, screenshots and other material, along with a certificate under Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, for the electronic records, and the statement of one Nitin Gohal, recorded under Section 17 of the PMLA on May 7 and May 8.It requested that the FIR be registered forthwith and a copy furnished to it before the next hearing on September 3, warning that any further delay in registration could lead to destruction or tampering of evidence.