A Fugitive Economic Offender is a legal term in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. It relates to any individual against whom a warrant for

arrest An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be question ...

in relation to a "scheduled offence" has been issued by any Indian court under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act. It applies to individuals who either left India to avoid criminal prosecution; or, being abroad, refuse to return to India to face criminal prosecution. The list of Fugitive Economic Offenders currently residing abroad is Pushpesh Baid, Ashish Jobanputra, Vijay Mallya, Sunny Kalra, Sanjay Kalra, Sudhir Kumar Kalra, Aarti Kalra, Varsha Kalra, Jatin Mehta, Umesh Parekh, Kamlesh Parekh, Nilesh Parekh, Eklavya Garg, Vinay Mittal, Nirav Modi, Neeshal Modi, Mehul Choksi, Sabya Seth, Rajiv Goyal, Alka Goyal, Lalit Modi, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara, Chetankumar Sandesara, Ritesh Jain, Hitesh Narendrabhai Patel, Mayuriben Patel and Priti Ashish Jobanputra.

History

2018

On 14 March 2018, Minister of State for External Affairs

M. J. Akbar Mobasher Jawed Akbar (born 11 January 1951) is an Indian journalist and politician, who served as the Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs until 17 October 2018. Akbar is a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, and was inducted into ...

stated the names of the 31 absconding businesspeople in the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

, including

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of e ...

traders Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Jatin Mehta and embattled

liquor Liquor ( , sometimes hard liquor), spirits, distilled spirits, or spiritous liquor are alcoholic drinks produced by the distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar that have already gone through ethanol fermentation, alcoholic ferm ...

baron Vijay Mallya, who is facing an investigation from the

Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the domestic crime investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and gover ...

. Minister of State for External Affairs Gen. (Retd.) V. K. Singh submitted the Fugitive Economic Offender names to the Lok Sabha on 25 July 2018. Singh said: "efforts are being made for securing the presence of these accused in the country by way of issuance of

Look out Circular Look out circular (LOC) is a circular letter used by authorities in India to check whether a traveling person is wanted by the police. It may be used at immigration checks at international borders such as international airports or sea port A p ...

, (

Red corner notice An Interpol notice is an international alert circulated by Interpol to communicate information about crimes, criminals, and threats by police in a member state (or an authorised international entity) to their counterparts around the world. The in ...

) and

extradition In an extradition, one Jurisdiction (area), jurisdiction delivers a person Suspect, accused or Conviction, convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, into the custody of the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforc ...

requests." The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate are pursuing legal actions to bring back 28 Indians (including six women), who have been charged for financial irregularities and criminal offenses, and are believed to have been living abroad since 2015.

2019

On 4 January 2019, Minister of State for Finance

Shiv Pratap Shukla Shiv Pratap Shukla (born 1 April 1952) is an Indian politician and statesman. Currently, he is the Governor of Himachal Pradesh. He was the Minister of State for Finance in the First Modi ministry. He was a Member of Parliament in the upper h ...

said in the Lok Sabha the names of the 27 defaulting businessmen and economic offenders who had fled the country in the last five years.

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...

has been approached and asked to issue red corner notices to 20 of the 27 offenders.

2020

On February 5, 2020, the Minister of State for Finance S.P. Shukla informed the Lok Sabha that a total of 72 Indians charged with frauds or financial irregularities are currently abroad and efforts are being made to bring them back to the country. Only 2 of the fugitives have been brought back to India and they are Vinay Mittal and Sunny Kalra.

List of Fugitive Economic Offender

References