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ED eyes Fugitive Economic Offender proceedings against Vinay Mishra
Introduced by the government in 2018 to deter economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts, the fugitive tag empowers authorities to confiscate the proceeds of crime and assets, where the amount involved is above ₹100 crore.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is preparing to initiate fugitive economic offender (FEO) proceedings against former Trinamool Congress (TMC) youth wing leader Vinay Mishra, after a Delhi court last Sunday declared him a ‘proclaimed offender’, people familiar with the development said.
This will allow the agency that investigates financial crimes to confiscate Mishra’s overseas properties.
Mishra will be the 10th such fugitive, joining the infamous ranks of Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, Iqbal Mirchi’s wife Hajra Memon and sons Junaid and Asif, Sandesara brothersm Nitin and Chetan, the latter’s wife Dipti and a close associate, Hitesh Kumar Patel.
Introduced by the government in 2018 to deter economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts, the fugitive tag empowers authorities to confiscate the proceeds of crime and assets, where the amount involved is above ₹100 crore.
So far, these proceedings have been initiated against 14 persons, out of which nine have been approved by the courts. Properties worth ₹433 crore have been attached under the law.
While seeking to declare Mishra as a proclaimed offender under section 83 of the code of criminal procedure, the directorate’s special prosecutor Nitesh Rana had argued that “the accused has evading the non-bailable warrants and has not joined the investigations” in connection with a money laundering probe into alleged coal pilferage at the mines of Eastern Coalfields in West Bengal’s Kunustoria and Kajora.
The federal agency has alleged that Mishra, who acquired the citizenship of Vanuatu, a chain of 80 islands in the south Pacific, after fleeing from India in 2020, and his brother Vikas Mishra, received “proceeds of crime worth ₹730 crore on behalf of some influential persons and for themselves” in the alleged illegal coalmining. The scam is estimated to be around ₹1,352 crore.
Mishra is also accused in another 2020 money laundering scandal pertaining to cattle smuggling in West Bengal, in which charges have been pressed against him in April. The ED has identified proceeds of crime worth over ₹400 crore in cattle smuggling.
It has alleged that cattle seized by the Border Security Force were undervalued and auctioned with the help of some customs officers to allow traders to buy them at throwaway prices and sell them in Bangladesh. A part of the proceeds allegedly went to some leaders of the Trinamool Congress and government officers, the law enforcement agency said.
In the coal pilferage scam, the ED initiated a probe based on a Central Bureau of Investigation first information report registered in November 2020.
After arresting Ashok Kumar Mishra, former inspector in-charge of Bankura police station, in the case, the ED had claimed in a Delhi court in April last year that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee was a beneficiary of the funds obtained in the illegal mining, which was flourishing in West Bengal under the patronage of the party in power.
Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira have been questioned by the agency in March and June, respectively.
“Investigation revealed a deep system of political patronage and well-oiled network by which the system was subverted to carry out these illegal activities in a brazen manner,” the ED said last year.
HT could not locate Mishra’s legal representative.
“We don’t want to comment on this,” said Kunal Ghosh, TMC spokesperson.
