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G20 Summit: India urged to act on fugitive offenders
Why is it in the news?
- India has called for a strong and active cooperation across G-20 countries to deal with fugitive economic offenders and facilitate asset recovery.
- 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.
- India also called for joint efforts by G-20 countries to form a mechanism that denies entry and safe havens to fugitive economic offenders.
- India suggested the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) should be called upon to assign priority and focus to establishing international cooperation.
- India asked for the cooperation that leads to timely and comprehensive exchange of information between the competent authorities and financial intelligence units.
- 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
- A fugitive economic offender is one who has left the country to avoid facing prosecution, or refuses to return to face prosecution.
- 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.
- The absence of such offenders from Indian courts hampers investigation in criminal cases.
Source
The Hindu.