Centre making effort to get back economic offenders: VK Singh in Lok Sabha

The government is making efforts to bring back people involved in financial irregularities to the country through Look Out Circulars, Red Corner Notice and extradition requests, Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, listed 29 people, including liquor baron Vijay Mallya, and diamantaires Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, as those involved in financial irregularities who have fled the country or are living abroad for the years 2015-18 as per the details provided by the Central Bureau of Investigation .

According to the information provided by the Enforcement Directorate, there are 41 people involved in financial irregularities who fled the country or are living abroad, including Mallya, Modi and Choksi, he said.

Five persons -- Hamel Mahendrabhai Langalia, Rajeev Verma, Syed Zainul Hasan, Modi and Choksi -- were found involved in various violations of Customs Act, 1962, and have fled the country or are living abroad, Singh said, citing information given by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence.

"Efforts are being made for securing presence of these accused in the country by way of issuance of LOC (Look Out Circulars), RCN (Red Corner Notice) and extradition requests," he said.

Action under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, has also been initiated in suitable cases, he said.

Mallya remains on bail after his extradition was recently ordered by Westminster Magistrates' Court in London, an order which now awaits a sign-off by UK home secretary Sajid Javid.

For Modi, 18 letters of request (LRs) have been sent to different countries and two separate extradition requests have been forwarded to the UK in August 2018.

RCN has been opened and LRs sent to Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and USA for Choksi. PTI ASK ASK ANB ANB