Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

The Monsoon Session of the Parliament has started with the no-confidence motion to be discussed on Friday. On Thursday, the Lok Sabha passed the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill,2018 replacing the ordinance passed earlier for the same.

The ordinance came into effect in April which allowed the seizure of the property and assets of jeweller billionaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi. They are the accused in the case of 13000 crore fraud with Punjab National Bank. They soon fled the country after the fraud was revealed.

The Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill will allow the authorities to seize the properties and assets of the loan defaulters and fraudsters who flee the country. It will also help in bringing back these economic fugitives who have fled the country and bring justice to the victims.

A person can be declared an economic offender after an arrest warrant is issued against him/her for a sum of more than Rs 100 crore and the accused offender flees the country without facing a trial and refuses to come back to face the charges.

The bill might help in bringing back liquor magnate Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi who are alleged offenders. Under this bill, the government will have the power to confiscate their assets.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor criticized the Bill and said, “This will not survive a constitutional test. It has been brought purely for optics and to play to the gallery. It suffers major lacunae. Any bill we pass should be legally sound. It is too serious an issue to become another jumla (rhetoric).”

The opposition also condemned the 100-crore mark which makes the bill applicable, it will allow the other offenders with less amount of scam go free.

However, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal defended the Bill. He also justified the 100-crore threshold and said, “The intention of the government is to ensure faster and speedy tackling of cases involving big offenders.”

The Bill will forbid the offenders from pursuing civil cases in India. This was also widely criticised by the opposition.

 

By isha

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