By Ruma Dubey

The horses have run out of the stable and the door is now being closed.

That’s how one feels on reading that 36 scamsters have already fled the country and we are left sifting through the muck, working relentlessly on extradition while the tax payers money gets wasted, time and again. While RBI and finance ministry continue with their blame game, we can only watch helplessly as banks get heisted.

We did a little digging into the who’s who of the 36 absconders; we found background on most and some we could not.

M J Akbar, Minister of State, Ministry of External Affairs, provided two lists of absconding businesspersons – one prepared by Directorate of Enforcement and another provided by CBI.

Those under the DEA scanner:

1: Mr. Vijay Mallya

2: Mr. Jatin Mehta – of Winsome Diamonds fame

3: Mr. Lalit Modi – IPL fame

4: Mr. Nirav Modi – most famous man in India currently

5: Mr. Mehul Choksi – of course, the man in the news

6: Mr. Ritesh Jain - middle man for “whitening” black money for businessmen and politicians

7: Mr. Sanjay Bhandari – famous arms dealer

8: Mr. Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara – of Sterling Biotech fame

9: Mr. Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara – of Sterling Biotech fame

10: Dharminder Singh Anand – prime accused in hawala transactions

11: Mr. Ashish Jobanputra and 12: Ms. Priti Jobanputra – ABC Cotspin, bill discounting scam

 

And then there is the second list of Absconding Businesspersons Involved in Cases under Investigation by CBI: (7 are great enough to appear in both the lists!)

(1) Mr. Vijay Mallya – of course the entire country knows who he is!

(2) Mr. Soumit Jena - mining scam

(3) Mr. Vijaykumar Revabhai Patel

(4) Mr. Sunil Ramesh Rupani

(5) Mr. Pushpesh Kumar Baid – Founder of Himadri Jewellers defrauded Dena Bank

(6) Mr. Surender Singh

(7) Mr. Angad Singh

(8) Mr. Harsahib Singh

(9) Ms. Harleen Kaur

(10) Mr. Ashish Jobanputra

(11) Mr. Jatin Mehta – Winsome Diamonds fraud

(12) Mr. Nirav Modi and his family (13) Mr. Neeshal Modi; (14) Mrs. Ami Nirav Modi

(15) Mr. Mehul Choksi – close aide of Nirav Modi of Geetanjali Jewellery fame

(16) Mr. Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara – Sterling Biotech

(17) Ms. Dipti Chetan Sandesara – Sterling Biotech

(18) Mr. Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara – Sterling Biotech

(19) Mr. Sabhya Seth - fraud committed with Oriental Bank of Commerce.

(20) Mr. Nilesh Parrekh and (21) Umesh Parekh – Shree Ganesh Jewellery, cheated a consortium of 25 banks

(22) Mr. Sunny Kalra; (23) Ms. Aarti Kalra; (24) Mr. Sanjay Kalra and (25) Mrs. Varsha Kalra - defrauding PNB of money

(26) Mr. Hemant Gandhi – colluded with Central Excise employees in corruption and bribery

(27) Mr. Ishwarbhai Bhat

(28) Mr. M.G. Chandrasakhar

(29) Mr. Cheriya Vannarakkal Sudeer

(30) Mr. Nausha Kadeejath and (31) Mr. Cheriya Veettil Sadique - cheating the public on the promise of higher returns on investment.

It’s a pity that the Govt gave just the names and did not quantify the total amount looted by the 31 people.

The Govt decided to introduce the ‘Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018’. The bill would lay down measures to prevent fugitive economic offenders evade the processes of Indian law. The Bill ensures that the Government is entitled to confiscate properties of the fugitive economic offender with a view to making him submit to the jurisdiction of courts in India.

Well, the Parliament needs to function for this Bill to go through?

No processes or checks will keep the scamsters away; they are always 10 steps ahead. Unless we have a strong system of accountability and punitive actions, more and more such frauds will continue to plague India.

Over the weekend, take a look at this list: https://infogram.com/wilful-defaults-borrowers-names-1g9vp11kv1zgp4y