Talks with UK Soon on Extradition, Says Jitendra Singh As He Calls On Global Community for Faster Asset Recovery

India hosted the first anti-corruption working group meeting under its G20 presidency in Gurugram on Wednesday. MoS public grievance minister Jitendra Singh, who was addressing the delegates from G20, 10 guest countries and 13 global institutions, stressed the “highly complex” process of extradition and “delay in investigation” and trial for recovery of assets from foreign countries.

“There are diverse legal and procedural frameworks to deal with. However, there is a need for the global community to work faster for the recovery of assets through proactive sharing of information between the G20 countries,” the minister said.

While exclusively speaking to News18, Jitendra Singh also pointed out how the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act has helped India and other countries in prosecuting economic offenders.

He said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has transferred assets worth $180 billion to public sector banks that suffered losses to the tune of $272 billion due to frauds committed allegedly by high net worth individuals.

“With G20 being held under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, such meeting will help for further better coordination, streamlining of judicial processes and timely disposal of cases. There is a requirement for multilateral action rather than bilateral coordination, which proves to be more complex and presents obstacles in making progress on cases related to FEOs and recovery of related assets,” he added.

India has a long list of economic offenders, including high-profile Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Sanjay Bhandari.

When asked if the extradition cases of the high-profile economic offenders will be taken on a separate basis with the UK, Singh said the government has shown “utmost commitment and determination” post 2014 to bring back such fugitives. He said “talks will happen at all levels” with the UK on how certain gaps can be filled to expedite the extradition of such offenders.

The first meeting of the G20 anti-corruption working group was held on March 1, and will continue till March 3. Two more meetings are scheduled to take place in the coming months in Rishikesh and Kolkata.

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