Centre making efforts to bring fugitive offenders back: MoS Finance

Union Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla on Monday assured that the central government is making all efforts to bring fugitive economic offenders back to India.

Shukla, without mentioning any name, told ANI, "We are making all efforts to bring these people (fugitive economic offenders) back to India. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has recently spoken to the President of Nicaragua over the issue of extradition."

Shukla's statement came few hours after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached assets worth Rs 637 crore belonging to fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi in connection with the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.

After working for three months in close coordination with overseas agencies, the ED identified and attached jewellery, bank accounts, immovable properties of the fugitive diamantaire under Section 5 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

The PNB scam pertains to alleged fraudulent use of Letter of Understanding (LoU) by Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi to dupe the PNB of nearly USD 2 billion, with the purported involvement of few employees of the bank.

Liquor baron Vijay Mallya is also wanted in India for defaulting on bank loans to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore. He has been in the United Kingdom since March 2016. He was arrested by the Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant in April this year

On September 24, Mallya submitted his reply before a Mumbai special court on ED 's plea seeking that he be declared a fugitive under the new Fugitive Economic Offenders Act. The newly-introduced Fugitive Economic Offenders Act seeks to confiscate properties of economic offenders who have left the country to avoid facing criminal prosecution. The law also prescribes measures to deter fugitive economic offenders from evading prosecution by staying abroad.