New Delhi: At a time when India is seeking extradition of alleged economic offenders like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi who have fled abroad, Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested a nine-point agenda on Saturday before world leaders of the G-20 countries at Argentina’s Capital Buenos Aires for “action against fugitive economic offences and asset recovery”.
Mooting a “strong and active cooperation across G-20 countries to deal comprehensively and efficiently with the menace of fugitive economic offenders”, the action-plan included “cooperation in the legal processes such as effective freezing of the proceeds of crime and early return of the off-enders, and a joint effort by G-20 countries to form a mechanism that denies entry and safe havens to all fugitive economic offenders”.
It also envisaged a major role for global inter-governmental body Financial Action Task Force which it said “should also develop a set of commonly agreed and standardized procedures related to identification, extradition and judicial proceedings for dealing with fugitive economic offenders to provide guidance and assistance to G-20 countries, subject to their domestic law”.
The action plan stood for “cooperation in the legal processes such as effective freezing of the proceeds of crime; early return of the offenders and efficient repatriation of the proceeds of crime (that) should be enhanced and streamlined.
