• Union Minister Jitendra Singh said that assets worth more than $1.8 billion have been recovered from economic offenders and fugitives in the last four years.

• The Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has helped in attaching the assets of offenders worth more than $12 billion since 2014, he said.

• Singh said 19 criminals/fugitives have returned to India this year so far, whereas previously, on an average around 10 of them have returned to India every year.

• The figure stood at 27 in 2022 and 18 in 2021.

Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018

• Fugitive economic offender means an individual who has committed a scheduled offence or offences involving an amount of Rs 100 crore or more and has absconded from India or refused to come back to India to avoid or face criminal prosecution in India.

• There have been several instances of economic offenders fleeing the jurisdiction of Indian courts, anticipating the commencement, or during the pendency, of criminal proceedings. The absence of such offenders from Indian courts has several deleterious consequences. First, it hampers investigation in criminal cases. Second, it wastes precious time of courts of law, and third, it undermines the rule of law in India. 

• Most of such cases of economic offences involve non-repayment of bank loans thereby worsening the financial health of the banking sector in India.

• Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 has been enacted for effective action against economic offenders fleeing Indian jurisdiction. 

• It provides for attachment and confiscation of property of fugitive economic offenders and disentitles them from defending any civil claim. 

• The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act provides for measures to deter fugitive economic offenders from evading the process of law in India by staying outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts.

• The Enforcement Directorate has filed applications under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 against 19 persons. Of these, 10 persons, namely Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara, Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Hitesh Kumar Narendrabhai Patel, Junaid Iqbal Memon, Hajra Iqbal Memon, Asif Iqbal Memon and Ramachandran Vishwanathan have been declared as Fugitive Economic Offenders by the courts.

• The amount of fraud involved in these cases is more than Rs 40,000 crore.

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