close
Thursday March 28, 2024

India to seize property of super-rich fugitives

By Agencies
April 22, 2018

NEW DELHI: Indian authorities will be empowered to seize properties of super-rich fugitives whose economic offences or crimes involve sums over 1 billion rupees ($15 million), according to a government document seen by Reuters on Saturday.The move comes as the country reels from a series of banking scandals, including a $2 billion fraud at state-run Punjab National Bank that was uncovered in February. Mumbai jewellers Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are prime suspects in the case and a special court of India´s Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) this month issued non-bailable warrants against them. But authorities say the two men left the country before the fraud was uncovered. Modi and Choksi have denied the allegations against them. Following an executive order, or ordinance, issued by the cabinet, investigating agencies will be able to confiscate the properties of fugitives in such cases.

"The ordinance is expected to re-establish the rule of law with respect to the fugitive economic offenders as they would be forced to return to India to face trial for scheduled offences," the government document said.

According to the ordinance, a special court set up under anti-money laundering laws will have to declare a suspect fugitive before authorities can seize property.

India is seeking the extradition of Indian liquor and aviation tycoon Vijay Mallya over unpaid loans to his defunct Kingfisher Airlines after the businessman, co-owner of the Formula One Force India team, moved to Britain in March 2017. Mallya’s lawyers argue that he is being used as a scapegoat by Indian politicians of all stripes to deflect public anger at the accumulation of bad debts by state-owned banks.

Meanwhile, media reports said Indians Prime Minister Narendra Modi will introduce death penalty for rapists of girls under 12 years old.

Modi convened the cabinet meeting to approve an executive order that will amend India’s criminal law. The order will also force police to complete rape investigations within two months and extend maximum sentences for the rape of girls under 16 and women.

Using the order allows Modi to bypass parliament. It only needs to be signed by the Indian president to take effect.

Modi had come under pressure after two high-profile cases where senior officials in his right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) were accused of rape or of trying to prevent police investigations.

In January, Asifa Bano, an eight-year-old girl from Kathua in the Indian Held Kashmir (IHK), was abducted, drugged and raped in a small Hindu temple. After five days the girl, who was a member of a Muslim tribe, was killed with a rock.

When police officers tried to arrest the temple custodian Sanji Ram and seven other men, they were confronted by a group of protesters orchestrated by BJP officers and a state minister.

Last week, Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a BJP member of the Uttar Pradesh state parliament, was arrested after he and his brother were accused of raping a 15-year-old girl. The family tried to register a case with police for months without success, then the girl tried to burn herself alive outside the chief minister’s residence. The next day her father died in police custody.

Modi failed to address either attack for several days, fuelling public anger. Critics said too little had been done to protect women and change attitudes after the gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh in Delhi in 2012. The student, also known as Nirbhaya - Hindi for fearless - was attacked on a bus while travelling with her boyfriend and died 13 days later.

The chairwoman of the Delhi Commission for Women Swati Maliwal went on hunger strike nine days ago, saying that she would fast until the death penalty was introduced. “Until something concrete happens, I will not give up,” she said on Friday after the order was announced. “Until a system is there which ensures safety for the last girl, I won’t give up.”

However, the decision by Modi’s cabinet was criticised by opponents of the death penalty, which is already in force for other offences.