Mehul Choksi to Zakir Naik, govt struggles to bring back fugitives holed up abroad
The Indian Express | 2 days ago | 22-03-2023 | 11:45 am
The Indian Express
2 days ago | 22-03-2023 | 11:45 am
Interpol removing the Red Notice against Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan fraud case accused Mehul Choksi has brought the focus back on Indian fugitives who are now abroad, with the Opposition on Tuesday taking on the BJP-led Central government. Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said while central agencies were being used against Opposition leaders, the PM’s “Mehul bhai” was getting a free pass. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also hit out at the government over the matter.There are more than 270 Indians against whom a Red Notice has been issued. Of them, more than 30 are economic offenders accused of large-scale money laundering or bank fraud.A look at the status of India’s efforts to get some of the key offenders back to the country:The key accused in the Rs 13,500-crore PNB loan fraud case fled India in January 2018 days before the Central Bureau of India (CBI) registered a case against him. Months before this, he had taken citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean.India’s attempts to get Choksi back have been the most dramatic. Based on requests from CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Interpol issued a Red Notice against Choksi. An extradition request was also subsequently sent to Antigua to get Choksi back. While this remained pending in the court there, Choksi was allegedly kidnapped and ferried in a yacht in May 2021 to Dominica, where the authorities put him under arrest for “illegal entry” after the local media began reporting about his arrival.Subsequently, a private jet carrying officials from the CBI and Ministry of External Affairs arrived in Dominica to get him back to India. However, after the case went to court on grounds of illegal entry against Choksi, the jet had to return.Choksi’s legal team was able to secure bail for him and take him back to Antigua. It also accused the Indian government of orchestrating the kidnapping through its agents in an attempt to deport him to India through Dominica. Later, Dominica dropped all charges against Choksi.In a major setback for India, Interpol, while removing the Red Notice against Choksi, said there was “credible evidence” of his kidnapping and that there were “risks” of him not receiving a fair trial in India. This development could now complicate India’s efforts to extradite Choksi back to India.Choksi’s nephew Nirav Modi, his partner in crime in the PNB case, fled India to London around the same time as Choksi. The CBI got a Red Notice issued against Modi in 2018 followed by an extradition request to the UK. Modi was arrested on India’s extradition warrant in March 2019 and his extradition was approved by the court in February 2021, and by the government that April. Last December, Modi lost his final appeal to the UK Supreme Court following which he should have arrived in India within 28 days after the UK Home Secretary’s assent.However, he has yet to arrive in India. Sources said his extradition was stuck because of another “legal matter” pending in court. This, sources said, was speculated to be an asylum application.The former liquor baron is perhaps the most high-profile of fugitives from India. Mallya is accused of cheating and money laundering in connection with the Rs 9,000-crore Kingfisher Airlines loan fraud case. Mallya left India for London in March 2016 following the CBI’s investigation into the collapse of Kingfisher Airlines.After this, CBI not only got a Red Notice issued against him but sent an extradition request to the UK. Mallya was arrested on an extradition warrant by UK authorities in October 2017 and subsequently, all proceedings were completed. His last appeal against extradition was rejected by the UK Supreme Court in May 2020 following which he should have been extradited to India within days after the UK Home Secretary’s assent.However, his extradition continues to be held up on account of some “secret proceedings” in a UK court that sources say are attempts by Mallya to seek asylum in the UK.The Vadodara-based Sandesaras, including Chetan’s wife Depti and their relative Hansmukh Patel, are accused in the Rs 20,000-crore Sterling Biotech loan fraud case. All have Interpol Red Notices open against them on requests from the CBI and the ED. Shortly before the two agencies began their investigations in 2017, the family left India and reached Nigeria via Dubai.The Sandesaras have since taken citizenship of both Nigeria and Albania and have made massive investments in both countries using the money allegedly siphoned off from Indian banks. While they run an oil business in Nigeria, in Albania they have made investments in the real estate business.India has sent an extradition request to both countries. However, both Nigeria and Albania have refused to honour the Interpol Red Notices and made no positive movement on India’s requests to extradite them. Nigeria’s attorney general’s office has called the case “political” while Albania has been dragging its feet in the name of conducting investigations on India’s charges. In 2019, Albania appointed Nitin Sandesara as an honourary consul to Nigeria.The former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman, the chief architect of the cricket league, has been under investigation by various agencies in connection with forex violations and a Rs 425-crore TV rights deal with World Sports Group for the 2009 edition of the IPL. After attending just one interrogation session with Income Tax and ED sleuths in Mumbai over some matters related to forex violations, Lalit Modi fled to the UK in May 2010.Chennai Police was the first to register an FIR in connection with the TV rights deal case. Based on it, the ED began money laundering investigations in 2012. Following this, the ED’s multiple requests to Interpol to issue a Red Notice against Modi were not successful. In March 2017, Interpol issued an order not only refusing a Red Notice, but it also deleted all data on Modi from its records.The order, dated March 24, said, “After a thorough examination of elements before it, the Commission concluded that data challenged were not compliant with Interpol’s rules applicable to the processing of personal data, and recommended their deletion.”One of the prime reasons for this has been that neither Chennai Police nor the ED was able to file a chargesheet in the case. In 2017, Tamil Nadu Police wrote to Mumbai Police to take over the case since the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was based in the city. The latter refused to do so and the probe into the primary offence itself has not progressed any further. No extradition request is pending against Modi.Fugitive arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari is being probed in multiple cases by different agencies, including Delhi Police, the Income-Tax Department, the CBI and the ED. Bhandari first came under the scanner of the agencies in 2016 when the I-T Department raided his premises in connection with information about the non-declaration of certain assets he held abroad. This case has now dovetailed into one on certain assets held by Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi’s husband Robert Vadra in London.The CBI began a preliminary enquiry in 2016 into Bhandari’s role in the signing of an aircraft deal between the Indian Air Force and Swiss firm Pilatus Aircraft in which kickbacks were suspected to have been paid. This, too, was turned into an FIR. By that time, however, Bhandari had left India for London.Following this, Delhi Police sent a request to Interpol to issue a Red Notice but in 2017 it was declined by the international organisation, which termed the case to be of “political nature”. India sent the UK a request for Bhandari’s extradition in 2019, which was forwarded to the relevant court in June 2020.The following month, Bhandari was arrested.The Westminster Court in London approved India’s extradition request for Bhandari in May 2022 after which it was sent to UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman for her assent. Braverman approved Sanjay Bhandari’s extradition to India on January 17. Subsequently, Bhandari moved the UK High Court against the extradition order.The National Investigation Agency (NIA) booked Islamic preacher Zakir Naik and his organisation Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) under stringent provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) even as the government banned the IRF following revelations that the accused in the 2016 Dhaka cafe attack, in which 22 people were killed, had been inspired by Naik’s speeches.Naik fled India around this time and in 2017 filed an application seeking asylum in Malaysia. While India is pursuing his extradition from Malaysia, Interpol has thrice declined India’s request to issue a Red Notice against him, the last one being in 2021. Interpol has rejected the NIA’s chargesheet in the case saying asking for donations during speeches and promoting religion does not constitute a criminal offence.
