Abstract

White-collar crime constitutes one of the most pervasive and economically devastating categories of criminal behaviour in contemporary India. Unlike conventional crimes of violence, white-collar offences are perpetrated in secrecy by persons of social respectability and cause diffuse but catastrophic harm to financial systems, democratic institutions, and public trust. This paper undertakes a comprehensive legal analysis of white-collar crimes in India, tracing their conceptual origins from Edwin Sutherland's seminal 1939 formulation through the ancient prescriptions of Kautilya's Arthashastra to the sophisticated financial frauds and cybercrimes of the digital age. The paper examines the legislative framework — encompassing the Indian Penal Code 1860, the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002, the Information Technology Act 2000, and the Companies Act 2013 — and evaluates the institutional mechanisms of the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate, the CVC, and the SFIO. Drawing on landmark commission reports, including the Santhanam Committee Report (1964), the Vivian Bose Commission (1963), and the Law Commission's 47th Report (1972), the paper identifies chronic structural weaknesses — most notably, manpower shortages in investigative agencies and the complications of the general consent requirement — that undermine the deterrent efficacy of the legal framework. Through case studies of the Satyam scandal, Ricoh India, and Volkswagen, the relationship between corporate governance failure and white-collar crime is examined. The paper concludes with a set of legislative, institutional, and policy recommendations.

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