Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, Iqbal Mirchi’s wife Hajra Iqbal Memon, and sons Junaid Memon and Asif Iqbal Memon are among the 14 individuals declared fugitive economic offenders in the last five years under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA) enacted in 2018, the Enforcement Directorate said in its annual report.
Applications to declare Mehul Choksi, Sanjay Bhandari and Zakir Naik and Mahadev app owner Ravi Uppal fugitive economic offenders are pending with different courts, the report said.
ED Director Rahul Navin said the 2018 law was a significant step in India’s efforts to combat economic offences, particularly those committed by individuals who believed that they could evade prosecution by fleeing the country. “The ED filed applications to get 24 individuals declared as fugitive economic offenders until now, and 14 of them were declared so,” he said.
Others on the list of 14 are Sandesara Group promoters Nitin, Chetan and Deepti Sandesara; Hitesh Patel, an accused in the Rs 8,100-crore bank loan fraud linked to Gujarat-based Sterling Biotech group; Zylog Systems Ltd promoters Sudarshan Venkataraman and Ramanujam Sesharathnam, the report said.
According to the report, FEOA equips the ED to target individuals who flee the country to evade prosecution for economic offences exceeding Rs 100 crore. “This function addresses the growing challenge of offenders like Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya, who abscond after perpetrating large-scale financial frauds. The ED’s role includes identifying and confiscating their assets, both domestic and international, to prevent the dissipation of proceeds of crime,” the report said.
“The ED has confiscated assets worth more than Rs 900 crore till now under the 2018 law and we are planning to enforce these provisions more effectively in coordination with the police and other agencies,” he added.
“Through action under this Act, ED has been successful in getting one individual to return to the country and joining the prosecution proceedings. Recently, non-conviction based confiscation was added to the recommendation of the Financial Action Task Force,” the report said.
