Law on anvil to confiscate assets of offenders fleeing India

NEW DELHI: In order to prevent loan defaulters like liquor baron Vijay Mallya from fleeing the country, the government plans to bring a law to confiscate the assets of such persons till they submit to judiciary.

In the recent past, there have been instances of "big time offenders, including economic offenders", fleeing the country to escape the reach of law, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.

"We have to ensure that the law is allowed to take its own course," he said in Parliament while presenting the Budget proposals for financial year 2017-18.

Jaitley said legislative changes or even a new law would be brought to deal with such absconders.

"Government is therefore considering introduction of legislative changes, or even a new law, to confiscate the assets of such persons located within the country, till they submit to the jurisdiction of the appropriate legal forum," he said.

Needless to say that all necessary constitutional safeguards will be followed in such cases, he added.

Mallya, whose defunct Kingfisher Airlines owes more than Rs 9,000 crore to various banks, had left India on March 2.

The total attachment made by the agency in this case has now shot up to Rs 8,041 crore. This is one of the largest attachment of assets made by ED in a PMLA case till now.

The agency had registered a money laundering case against him and others based on an FIR registered last year by the CBI.