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India's Fugitive Repatriation Surges Under Modi Government's Crackdown

India's Fugitive Repatriation Surges Under Modi Government's Crackdown
Foreign Shores Are No Longer Safe Havens for India’s Fugitives · deccanchronicle.com

A fugitive is someone who runs away to another country so they don't have to face the police or court.

For a long time, people thought running away to another country meant escaping punishment forever.

India's government says it has been working hard to bring these people back.

In the last seven years, they brought back 274 people from 36 different countries.

That is about ten times more people per year than before 2014.

New laws now let the government take money and things that these fugitives took with them.

The police also got a new computer system called Bharatpol to share information faster with each other and with police in other countries.

There is even a new rule that lets a trial happen even when the accused person stays abroad.

All of this happened step by step over many years, and now it is much harder for a fugitive to get away forever.

Key facts

Fugitives repatriated
274 from 36 countries in the past seven years
Annual average increase
Nearly 10 times the annual average of 2004–2013
Assets seized (2019–2026)
₹17,874 crore
Assets restituted (2019–2026)
₹18,762 crore
Bharatpol launch
Launched January 2025; 1,400+ agency unit offices connected
Key legislation
Fugitive Economic Offenders Act and 2024 criminal laws with 'trial in absentia' provision
International summit
India hosted the 90th Interpol General Assembly in 2022
Latest measure
Standing Focus Group set up in January 2026 to track high-profile fugitives abroad

Sources

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