New Delhi: India on Friday said it is committed to bring back from abroad the economic fugitives including Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya to face the law in the country.
The assertion by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) came days after Lalit Modi, in a video posted on social media, joked about his and Mallya’s status as the “two biggest fugitives” of India.
“We are the two fugitives, the biggest fugitives of India,” he was heard saying.
The video from a party for Mallya’s 70th birthday in London was removed later. In the caption, Modi appeared to be sarcastic as he wrote: “Let’s break the internet down in India again.” Asked about the now deleted video, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the government is fully committed to bring back the people wanted by law in India.
“We remain fully committed that people who are fugitives, who are wanted by law in India, return to the country. For this particular issue, we are in talks with several governments,” he said at his weekly media briefing.
“Processes are on. In several of these cases, there are several layers of legalities involved. But we remain committed to bring them back to the country so that they can face trials before courts here,” he said.
Jaiswal was responding to a question. Mallya, who fled to the United Kingdom in March 2016, is wanted in
India over a default of Rs 9,000 crore that was loaned to Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) by several banks.
Lalit Modi is also wanted by Indian probe agencies for his alleged involvement in money laundering and violating the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).