A view of the Lok Sabha assembly during the monsoon session of Parliament, in New Delhi. (Image courtesy: LSTV... Read More

NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill aimed at preventing offenders from siphoning off public funds and fleeing the country, after a two-hour debate that saw sharp political exchanges between the ruling BJP and Congress.

BJP’s Nishikant Dubey, while accusing then Congress government for increased non-performing assets (NPAs) of public banks, said that Vijay Mallya was given loans by Congress without any collateral.

He said that two finance ministers during UPA tenure were involved in sanction of loans to Mallya.

“You get the loan sanctioned without collateral and if he has run away, you say he has run away. Who gave the loans? Who created the situation?” Dubey said.

He added that “the CBI is going to file a charge sheet and it will have the name of a former finance minister”.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge objected to this and asked how the BJP MP knew about who the CBI is going to name in its chargesheet. He added that “It’s all pre-planned. You are doing it to frame (the opponents)”.

Finance minister Piyush Goyal said that government had brought an ordinance before introducing the bill in Parliament which reflected its “aggressiveness” in acting against black money and such offenders. He also questioned the UPA why it didn’t bring a legislation like this.

The Fugitive Economic Offenders’ Bill 2018 seeks to force fugitive economic offenders to return to India to face trial for scheduled offences.

The government has claimed that it will also help the banks and other financial institutions to achieve higher recovery from financial defaults committed by such offenders, improving the financial health of such institutions.

The bill empowers the probe agencies to confiscate the property of an individual declared as a fugitive economic offender in India and abroad, including benami property and deny him/her any civil claim.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that the bill was poorly drafted and would not withstand judicial scrutiny, questioning the logic of the provision putting the minimum value of offence at Rs 100 crore.

Tharoor termed the recent incidents of big bank fraudsters fleeing the country as “jhoot, loot and scoot”.

