Long investigation process in India gives accused time to vanish into thin air.

So you become aware that some Indian investigative agencies are acting against you or might act against you. Whether that is because you have been accused and convicted in the court of law or that of a news television studio or because someone in power has told you that you are in a spot of bother, it does not matter.

The fact is that you think you are in trouble and in India, thanks to labyrinthine and flawed judicial process you are not sure that you will get justice in a reasonable amount of time or you are actually guilty, what would you do? You know that the authorities have not issued a lookout circular for you just yet, so you would do what anybody would, that is to catch the first flight to a friend jurisdiction like United Kingdom, or even get a long-term visa in the United States. And if you’re really smart you find a friendly Caribbean haven where you can buy a citizenship and spend the rest of your life may be sipping Pina Colada’s under a straw hat on a beach of white coral sand.

No really? Ask yourself, if you had the money the get out of India, what would you do? This is not to condone the actions of Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Vijay Mallya and many others over the years, but the slow-motion proceedings against such alleged scamsters and fraudsters gave all of them ample amount of time to escape. And even in some cases when the noose was tightening, it was all too easy for them to catch a flight and leave, Mallya’s case being too bizarre to even state. The fact is that the Indian state and its incompetent and most certainly corrupt investigative agencies let these people escape.

Again, we come back to a simple point, the most urgently required reforms in India are in the police and judicial system to reduce corruption and lethargy. There will always be some fish who escape through the net but India’s investigative agencies have a net with huge gaping holes, and one has to be a really dumb fish or pursued aggressively to get caught. At the same time, it is imperative that the External Affairs Ministry’s legal cell assist Indian investigative agencies more robustly in order to get extradition treaties moving. We must fix the net, otherwise any criminal will just do the logical thing, and if not London then certainly Nepal beckons.

Courtesy: The Pioneer

Long investigation process in India gives accused time to vanish into thin air.

So you become aware that some Indian investigative agencies are acting against you or might act against you. Whether that is because you have been accused and convicted in the court of law or that of a news television studio or because someone in power has told you that you are in a spot of bother, it does not matter.

The fact is that you think you are in trouble and in India, thanks to labyrinthine and flawed judicial process you are not sure that you will get justice in a reasonable amount of time or you are actually guilty, what would you do? You know that the authorities have not issued a lookout circular for you just yet, so you would do what anybody would, that is to catch the first flight to a friend jurisdiction like United Kingdom, or even get a long-term visa in the United States. And if you’re really smart you find a friendly Caribbean haven where you can buy a citizenship and spend the rest of your life may be sipping Pina Colada’s under a straw hat on a beach of white coral sand.

No really? Ask yourself, if you had the money the get out of India, what would you do? This is not to condone the actions of Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi or Vijay Mallya and many others over the years, but the slow-motion proceedings against such alleged scamsters and fraudsters gave all of them ample amount of time to escape. And even in some cases when the noose was tightening, it was all too easy for them to catch a flight and leave, Mallya’s case being too bizarre to even state. The fact is that the Indian state and its incompetent and most certainly corrupt investigative agencies let these people escape.

Again, we come back to a simple point, the most urgently required reforms in India are in the police and judicial system to reduce corruption and lethargy. There will always be some fish who escape through the net but India’s investigative agencies have a net with huge gaping holes, and one has to be a really dumb fish or pursued aggressively to get caught. At the same time, it is imperative that the External Affairs Ministry’s legal cell assist Indian investigative agencies more robustly in order to get extradition treaties moving. We must fix the net, otherwise any criminal will just do the logical thing, and if not London then certainly Nepal beckons.

Courtesy: The Pioneer