New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is bringing back Monika Kapoor, an accused in an import-export fraud, from the US after over 25 years.
The CBI took custody of Monika after the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York cleared her extradition under the bilateral extradition treaty between India and the USA.
The flight carrying her is expected to land in India on Wednesday night, officials said. India had approached the US seeking Kapoor’s extradition in 2010.
Monika fled to the US in 1999 after the alleged fraud, in which she, along with her two brothers — Rajan Khanna and Rajiv Khanna — forged documents for a jewellery business. These documents were allegedly used to obtain licenses from the Indian government to import raw materials duty-free.
The alleged fraud caused a loss of more than US$ 6,79,000 (about Rs 1.44 crore in 1998-99) to the Indian exchequer.
Monika was the owner of a firm named “Monika Overseas”. Along with her brothers, she prepared fake shipping bills, invoices and fake export documents for banks in 1998. Through these fake documents, they obtained six ‘replenishment licenses’ from the government, which allowed the purchase of duty-free gold worth about Rs 2.36 crore.
They then sold these licenses at a premium to Deep Exports, an Ahmedabad-based firm, which used them to import duty-free gold.
The CBI filed a charge sheet against Monika and her brothers in 2004 upon completion of the investigation. As Monika did not join the investigation and trial, she was declared a proclaimed offender in 2006.
A red corner notice was also issued against her in 2010, the same year CBI sought help from the US authorities.
The secretary of state issued a surrender warrant subsequently after rejecting Kapoor’s claims that she would likely be tortured if returned to India, and that her extradition would therefore violate the United Nations Convention Against Torture as implemented by the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 (FARRA).
A court in Delhi convicted Rajan and Rajiv in 2017.
