The Modi government has recovered record money from scamsters like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi. Appearing for the Centre, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the Supreme Court that 18,000 crore rupees have been recovered from the fugitives.
“Some of the people who have left the country duping thousands of crores are getting protection of the courts. So far, a tune of ₹ 67000 crores is held up by the Courts by granting non-coercive actions,” said Tushar Mehta.
As per the government records, 4,700 PMLA cases are being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate and the total proceeds of crimes pending before the court amounts to ₹ 67,000 crores. This is very small when compared to the situation abroad.
As examples, the Centre cited the UK, where 7,900 cases have been filed under the Money Laundering Act in a year, the US (1,532), China (4,691), Austria (1,036), Hongkong (1,823), Belgium (1,862) and Russia (2,764).
The Modi government auctioned the properties and shares of the fugitives and in some cases like Vijay Mallya, recovered the whole money along with the full interest amount.
Mallya had escaped to the United Kingdom in 2016 and since then the CBI and ED have been aggressively looking to bring him back to India. In 2018, a lower court had ordered Mallya to be extradited post which the fugitive appealed in the London High Court.
Read More: ‘Flashy billionaire playboy’ Vijay Mallya gets slammed in London Court. All set to be extradited
Since then, Mallya is saying that he is ready to pay back every single penny if the Modi government promises to not throw him in jail for various financial crimes – which he denies.
He has repeatedly said on public forums that he is willing to pay back, but the government has already recovered the amount by auctioning his shares and property. Also, the government is not promising Mallya any immunity because it wants to make an example out of him.
Vijay Mallya owed about Rs. 9000 crores to 17 Indian banks, and after almost three years of hustling with the Indian government and media he asserted that it is the government that is not ‘taking the money back. “Please take it”, he said twice in his tweets.
Read More: ‘Ye Daulat bhi le, ye Shohrat bhi le lo,’ Vijay Mallya officially bows down to the Modi government
But the government already auctioned his “properties” to recover the loans his company has taken from the government and now the banks do not need the person to have the loans repaid. If anything, Mallya is needed in India to be put behind bars for running from investigation agencies.
The Modi government has adopted a very tough stance on issues like corruption, black money, and money laundering. Recently the Foreign Assets Investigation Unit (FAIU) asked all the people who have a foreign bank account to share details of offshore bank accounts since 2001.
After this, the people who have clean dealings have no reason to worry because holding a bank account in a foreign country is not illegal, those who used this to evade taxes and transfer black money are the ones who are in trouble.
A lot of people used secret bank accounts to purchase houses and avail of other luxuries through illegally funnelled black money. And now these people are in trouble.
The steps taken by the government to curb black money at home and the actions taken to bring black money stashed in foreign countries or coming through fraudulent transactions from countries like the United Kingdom, Mauritius, and Switzerland will lead to India becoming a rule-based capitalist economy with a very high trust factor. In the last few years, the tax revenues have already improved, and the government is ensuring that there is fear among all classes of the society to not evade taxes.
