As ED links Vadra to arms dealer’s aide, spotlight back on fugitives

Animesh Singh

New Delhi, December 27

With the Enforcement Directorate (ED) having informed a special court here by filing a supplementary chargesheet that CC Thampi, who worked for absconding arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, was a close associate of Robert Vadra, the spotlight has once again fallen on fugitives wanted in India for economic offences.

Some of the key economic offenders are currently in the UK and the process to extradite them to India is going on for long. They included Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi. Mallya has been charged in a bank loan default case involving his now disbanded Kingfisher Airlines. Mallya left the country on March 2, 2016, the day a cluster of public sector banks moved the Debts Recovery Tribunal against him. In January 2019, he was declared an offender under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act.

The Indian Government is making all efforts to extradite Mallya from the UK. In February 2019, the UK Home Secretary had approved the extradition. The case is now pending in the London High Court, where Mallya had filed an appeal against the order.

Lalit Modi, who shot to fame as IPL Commissioner, was accused of bid rigging and money laundering in contravention of provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999, worth hundreds of crores of rupees.

He is wanted by law enforcement agencies since he left India in 2010. He is accused of embezzling around Rs 125 crore from the country’s cricket board during 2009-10.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had filed a police complaint against him and six others in Chennai in October, 2010. In December 2012, the ED started an investigation on the basis of this complaint. He is currently in the UK.

Jeweller and fashion designer Nirav Modi is charged with defrauding Punjab National Bank (PNB) of Rs 14,000 crore in one of the largest banking frauds in the Indian history. Modi allegedly imported pearls into India using phoney letters of undertaking (LoUs). Later, it came to light that Modi’s LoUs had reportedly also been provided by PNB’s Brady House branch in Fort, Mumbai, in violation of the law. He is currently seeking political asylum in the UK.

Meanwhile, the Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi has issued an open-ended non-bailable warrant against UK national Sumit Chadha, accused by the ED in a money laundering case connected to Bhandari and others.

Long road to extradition

Vijay Mallya: Charged in a bank loan default case; fled in 2016; declared fugitive in Jan 2019; UK approved extradition in Feb 2019; appeal pending

Lalit Modi: Shot to fame as IPL Commissioner; accused by BCCI of embezzling Rs 125 cr; left India in 2010

Nirav Modi: Accused of defrauding PNB of Rs 14,000 crore; currently seeking political asylum in UK