BRICS Summit proposal: India to push for faster economic fugitive tracking

New Delhi: India will propose a framework for faster sharing of financial and investigative information to track economic fugitives among BRICS member nations at the upcoming summit under its presidency, officials aware of the discussions told ET. The framework involves faster and time-bound sharing of information, standardised formats for information exchange at the preliminary stages of investigations, an asset recovery framework, technical cooperation, institutional linkages and a well-defined legal process among BRICS partners. "The idea is to pitch for a stronger and more coordinated response to the extradition process of fugitives involved in financial crime, which will increasingly become critical given the complex nature of financial crime that often involves multiple jurisdictions and locations," a senior official told ET. India has been making efforts over the past few years to extradite fugitive diamantaires Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi in connection with the ₹13,000 crore financial fraud. Their extradition proceedings are progressing through courts in the UK and Belgium. During a network meeting ahead of the summit, enforcement agencies from member nations agreed to facilitate cooperation in tracing fugitives wanted for corruption and support extradition. "The matter was discussed at the pre-meeting of enforcement agencies ahead of the summit and we got a very positive response. We are going to formally push for the framework during the meeting," another senior official told ET. The proposed network will provide investigators with trusted channels to exchange information and engage with counterparts at an early stage, while complementing formal mutual legal assistance and extradition processes. The push comes as agencies globally grapple with the speed and complexity of cross-border movement of economic fugitives and the tracing of their assets and freezing of illicit proceeds. Such cases often involve fintech platforms, virtual digital assets and complex legal proceedings across multiple jurisdictions, making the process time-consuming. "The current process, from tracking a fugitive to extradition process, is extremely time taking," the official added. The move, if accepted, will help India crack down on offenders wanted in corruption and economic crime cases. India is preparing to host the 18th BRICS summit in New Delhi on September 12 and 13, marking 20 years since its formalisation in 2006. The proposal is part of India's broader push under its presidency to shift cooperation on economic offences from formal, often time-consuming channels towards faster exchanges between enforcement agencies at the practitioner level. During its G20 presidency, India had also pushed for the need for a global consensus-based model for crypto-asset regulation. Separately, officials from the Department of Revenue, in collaboration with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Cell, will organise the BRICS AML/CFT Capacity Building Training Programme at Rashtriya Raksha University from September 7 to 11 at its campus in Gandhinagar. The programme will bring together policymakers, financial intelligence units (FIUs), supervisory authorities, law-enforcement and prosecution agencies, and subject experts from BRICS member states.