FUGITIVE ECONOMIC OFFENDER ACT, 2018

INTRODUCTION

There have been several instances of economic offenders fleeing the jurisdiction of Indian courts anticipating the commencement of criminal proceedings or sometimes during the pendency of such proceedings. The absence of such offenders from Indian courts has several deleterious consequences, such as, it obstructs investigation in criminal cases, it wastes precious time of courts and it undermines the rule of law in India. Further, most of such cases of economic offences involve non-repayment of bank loans thereby worsening the financial health of the banking sector in India. The existing civil and criminal provisions in law are inadequate to deal with the severity of the problem.

In order to address the said problem and lay down measures to deter economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts, Parliament enacted a legislation, namely, the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 to ensure that fugitive economic offenders return to India to face the action in accordance with law.

KEY DEFINITIONS

• Fugitive Economic Offender {Section 2(f)} : “fugitive economic offender” means any individual against whom a warrant for arrest in relation to a Scheduled Offence has been issued by any Court in India, who—

has left India so as to avoid criminal prosecution; or

(ii) being abroad, refuses to return to India to face criminal prosecution;

• Scheduled Offense {Section 2(m)} : “Scheduled Offence” means an offence specified in the Schedule, if the total value involved in such offence or offences is 100 crore rupees or more;

PROCESS TO DECLARE A PERSON AS A FUGITIVE ECONOMIC OFFENDER

APPLICATION (Section 4)	The process of declaring a person as a fugitive economic offender starts with an application that is to be filled by the director or any other person who is not below the position of deputy director. The application needs to contain the following: Reason behind believing that such a person is an economic offender. 2. Any information about his whereabouts. 3. List of all the properties which are believed to be proceeds of crime or Benami property. 4. List of people an having interest in the said property
ATTACHMENT (Section 5)	The Authorities may attach any property which is mentioned in the above application with the prior approval of the special court. Such an attachment will be valid for 180 days, which may be extended to the discretion of the court.
NOTICE (Section 10)	The individual against whom the proceedings have been initiated will be served a notice by the special court. Such a notice will require the said individual to be present at the specified date on the specified date, failure to report on that date will result in declaring that person as a fugitive economic offender. It must be noted that the court will give a minimum time of 6 weeks to the alleged offender to be present before the court.
PROCEEDINGS AND DECLERATION (Section 11 & 12)	If the alleged offender appears before the court within the prescribed time then the proceedings will be terminated, and if he is represented by his council then the court will grant them a period of one week to file a reply after which if the court doesn’t find him as an fugitive economic offender then all his properties will be released. If that individual fails to appear in the stipulated date then he will be declared as a fugitive economic offender.
CONFISCATION (Section 12)	If the alleged person is found to be a fugitive economic offender then the special court may confiscate all the properties which are acquired from the proceeds of crime, Benami property. All the rights of this confiscated property shall solely vest with the central government. The central government has all the right to dispose of these properties after 90 days of confiscation.
APPEAL (Section 17)	The offender, if unsatisfied with the order, may appeal to the High Court within 30 of the order

CONCLUSION

The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act has been enacted to facilitate the working of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The proceedings initiated under the former shall cease as soon as the economic offender presents himself before the jurisdiction of the Indian Courts. So, this is an act, to bring back the economic offenders to the country. The Act facilitates recovery of dues from these economic offenders by empowering the investigating agencies to confiscate and sell the properties. Has come as a ray of hope for the banks and financial institutions who are the primary victims of such crimes.

Article Compiled by:-

Mayank Garg

+91 9582627751

Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to avoid errors or omissions in this material in spite of this, errors may creep in. Any mistake, error or discrepancy noted may be brought to our notice which shall be taken care of in the next edition In no event the author shall be liable for any direct indirect, special or incidental damage resulting from or arising out of or in connection with the use of this information Many sources have been considered including newspapers , charted secretary etc.