India calls for faster extradition of fugitive economic offenders in G20 meeting in Gurgaon

GURGAON: In a direct reference to economic fugitives finding safe havens overseas, India on Wednesday called upon G20 nations to adopt multilateral action for faster extradition of such offenders and recovery of assets from abroad.
Jointly chairing the first anti-corruption working group meeting of G20 nations with Italy in Gurgaon, minister of state in the PMO Jitendra Singh said many countries are facing the problem of economic offences and it becomes difficult to prosecute such offenders when the person flees overseas.
India has been fighting cases in UK courts for extradition of diamond merchant Nirav Modi and former business tycoon Vijay Mally for several years now.
Singh called for “better coordination, streamlining of judicial processes and timely disposal of cases for multilateral action rather than bilateral coordination, which proves to be more complex and presents obstacles in making progress on cases related to economic offenders”.
Singh said as the primary forum for global economic cooperation, G20 has to take responsibility to lead global efforts towards battling the menace of corruption. India is chairing the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group which was constituted in 2010.
He later told mediapersons how its legislative initiative against economic offenders helped the ED recover and return “assets worth $180 billion to public sector banks” of the $272 billion siphoned off by some of these offenders.
“India’s view is that strengthening of mechanisms for speedy confiscation of the proceeds of crime, both at home and abroad, will force the offenders to return to their home country,” Singh told the G20 delegates.