Fetching Fugitive Offenders through Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance

It is often seen that people first indulged in looting and then refuse to submit to the jurisdiction of our legal system. No one has forgotten Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksy, Vijay Mallya. With an aim to catch and punish those who are accused of committing financial crimes in India and then fleeing from the country, Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance came into being in the year 2018.

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It is often seen that people first indulged in looting and then refuse to submit to the jurisdiction of our legal system. No one has forgotten Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksy, Vijay Mallya. With an aim to catch and punish those who are accused of committing financial crimes in India and then fleeing from the country, Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance came into being in the year 2018. This Ordinance provide for measures to deter fugitive economic offenders from evading the process of law in India by staying outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts, to preserve the sanctity of the rule of law in India.

Who is a 'fugitive economic offender'?

"Fugitive economic offender" means any individual against whom a warrant for arrest in relation to a Scheduled Offence has been issued by any Court in India, who-

(i) The person has an arrest warrant issued against him for any scheduled offences amounting to over Rs.100 crores

(ii) Has left India so as to avoid criminal prosecution; or

(iii) Being abroad, refuses to return to India to face criminal prosecution.

Declaration of Fugitive Economic Offenders

An application must be filed in a Special Court designated under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 to declare an individual as a 'fugitive economic offender'.

The application should include details of the properties to be confiscated and any information about the person's location.

The Special Court will then issue a notice to the individual, requiring them to appear at a specified place within six weeks from the date of the notice.

If the person complies and presents themselves, the proceedings will be terminated.

The Act also permits designated authorities to provisionally attach properties of the accused while the application is pending before the Special Court.