Rs 15,113 Crore Recovered From Fugitive Economic Offenders: Govt

In a latest development, the government has informed that nearly Rs 15,113 crore have been recovered so far from people accused under Fugitive Economic Offenders Act including economic offenders like Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, and Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, among others. The money recovered from the fugitive economic offenders has been returned to public sector banks, stated Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary on Tuesday in the Rajya Sabha.

The details of the specific amount recovered from each accused so far is yet to be disclosed.

It is worth mentioning that out of 19 accused, 10 economic offenders have been declared Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEOs) and they have reportedly committed fraud to the tune of Rs 40,000 crore. They are Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara, Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Hitesh Kumar Narendrabhai Patel, Junaid Iqbal Memon, Hajra Iqbal Memon, Ramachandran Vishwanathan, and Asif Iqbal Memon.

Meanwhile, Enforcement Directorate has filed applications under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA) against the remaining nine economic offenders.
So far, four economic offenders have been extradited to India.

Gitanjali Gems, owned by fugitive diamond billionaire Nirav Modi's uncle Mehul Choksi, is the top wilful defaulter to scheduled commercial banks. Gitanjali Gems owes Rs 8,738 crore to banks as on March 31, 2023, according to a Business Today report.

In all, the top 50 wilful defaulters owe Rs 87,295 crore to scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) as on March 31 this year. The information was provided by MoS Finance Bhagwat Karad in response to another question in Rajya Sabha, stated the Business Today report.

"SCBs have written-off an aggregate amount of Rs. 10,57,326 crore during the last five financial years (RBI provisional data for FY 2022-23)," said the minister in reply to a question on wilful defaulters.