Why is it in the news?
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India has called for a strong and active cooperation across G-20 countries to deal with fugitive economic offenders and facilitate asset recovery.
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India presented a nine-point agenda to G20 member nations.
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The agenda was presented by Prime Minister in the second session of the G20 Summit on international trade, international financial and tax systems.
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India also called for joint efforts by G-20 countries to form a mechanism that denies entry and safe havens to fugitive economic offenders.
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India suggested the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) should be called upon to assign priority and focus to establishing international cooperation.
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India asked for the cooperation that leads to timely and comprehensive exchange of information between the competent authorities and financial intelligence units.
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India also advocated setting up of a common platform for sharing experiences and best practices including successful cases of extradition, gaps in existing systems of extradition and legal assistance, etc.
Introduction
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A fugitive economic offender is one who has left the country to avoid facing prosecution, or refuses to return to face prosecution.
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India has recently seen huge frauds and willful loan defaults by big corporates, with the offenders fleeing from the country like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi etc.
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The absence of such offenders from Indian courts hampers investigation in criminal cases.
Source
The Hindu.