Amidst growing pressure on the government to crack down upon cases of wilful default in the light of the recent Nirav Modi fiasco, the Finance Ministry tabled the tabled a law to prosecute economic offenders in Lok Sabha yesterday.
Formally known as the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, this law seeks to target those who commit white collar crimes like loan defaults, bank frauds, usage of black money, benami transactions, tax evasions, money laundering and corruption.
The bill is applicable to all offences in which the monetary value involved is greater than Rs. 100 crores. It specifically targets people who defraud the Indian legal system and then attempt to get out of the country to evade jurisdiction of courts here.
The Enforcement Directorate, which is the apex body under this law, has been given wide powers to carry out provisions relating to search, investigation, seizure and arrest. It has authority to attach properties of offenders as well in order to recover gains earned from offences mentioned in the bill.
This law was first envisaged during last year’s Union budget to bring back Vijay Mallya, who is currently being pursued by India from London via extradition procedures. However, the ongoing investigations in Nirav Modi’s Rs. 12,636 crore scam involving Punjab National Bank and the pressure this has created on investigation agencies has prompted the government to table this bill in the ongoing Parliament session without any further delay.