Parliament passes Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill

The Parliament on Wednesday passed the Economic Offenders Bill, 2018, seeking to give the Centre ample powers to arrest economic offenders such as Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, and seize or provisionally attach their properties or assets.

The law gives the authorities power to arrest the offenders who try to escape the country by evading its legal process.

The bill was passed by Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. It will now go for the President's assent as the Lok Sabha has already cleared the bill last week.

Under the provisions of the bill, a special PMLA court can confiscate properties of a person, declared as a fugitive economic offender. The property can be domestic or foreign assets, benami properties or the proceeds of a crime. The seized property can be disposed of by the Centre after a period of 90 days.

A person can be declared a fugitive economic offender, when an arrest warrant has been issued against him for a specified offence over Rs 100 crore, and when he has left the country and refuses to return to face prosecution. Once declared an economic offender, the person even loses the right to make civil claims.

While replying to the debate on the bill in the Rajya Sabha, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said “there cannot be a situation where economic offenders run away from the country, and also protect their properties”.

"This bill is an effective, expeditious and constitutional way to stop these offenders from running away. Legislative changes or a new law must be in place to confiscate the assets of such absconders till they don't present themselves before the courts. We will also work out what has to be done with the confiscated assets," Goyal said.

The government is also making efforts to get those accused, who have gone abroad to escape the legal process, extradited, he said.

Rebutting opposition charges that the government has failed to bring back black money, Goyal said, "We are fighting against black money and forcing offenders to face the legal process."