A six-member delegation of senior Chinese officials will meet their counterparts in Indian agencies to deepen cooperation between the two countries on people wanted for corruption and asset recovery.
During the five-day visit beginning Wednesday, the delegation will hold meetings with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Alok Kumar Verma and chiefs of the Central Vigilance Commission and the Department of Personnel and Training.
The meetings are also aimed at sharing experience pertaining to various anti-corruption measures and better coordination on the issue within G20 and BRICS.
During the Chinese presidency of G20 in 2016, the “High Level Principles on Cooperation on Persons Sought for Corruption and Asset Recovery” was initiated to address the issue of persons accused of corruption fleeing the country and transferring the proceeds of crime overseas to evade the law. India has supported the initiative in principle.
The document envisaged greater international cooperation in detection and investigations, besides other aspects of anti-corruption initiatives.
It is believed that the corruption accused have been taking advantage of the investment-based immigration offered by several countries to get passports and even citizenships, which help them escape the clutches of law in the country of their origin.
Between 2013-17, about 20,000 people are said to have benefited from the investment-based immigration policy, mostly in the developed countries.
Efforts are being made to evolve ways to prevent those wanted in corruption cases from abusing such policies and thus, denying them safe havens.
This issue will be top on the agenda of the meetings between representatives of the agencies from both the countries.
Indian agencies are already grappling with several cases, including those involving Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Sanjay Bhandari and the Sandesaras of the Vadodara-based Sterling Biotech group, in which the accused persons have fled the country.
They also allegedly diverted the funds and made investments in assets abroad. Even though the Enforcement Directorate has attached and seized properties worth thousands of crores in these cases, a probe into the overseas assets is still under way and is expected to be a time-consuming process owing to jurisdictional issues.
The issue of inter-country coordination in specific cases will also be discussed. Also, various aspects of bilateral and multilateral coordination within the framework of United Nations Convention against Corruption will also be taken up during the meetings.
