India Set to Propose New BRICS Framework to Fast-Track Extradition of Economic Fugitives
New Delhi: As India prepares to host the 18th BRICS Summit this September, the government is set to unveil a robust proposal aimed at curbing the flight of economic offenders. In a significant move, New Delhi will table a framework designed to accelerate the sharing of financial and investigative data among member nations to ensure that economic fugitives have fewer places to hide.
Strengthening Cross-Border Cooperation
The proposed framework represents a shift in strategy, moving away from slow, traditional legal channels toward a more agile, practitioner-level collaboration. Officials familiar with the development indicated that the plan includes the implementation of standardized formats for information exchange during the preliminary stages of investigations. By establishing a well-defined legal process, the framework seeks to streamline asset recovery, technical cooperation, and the institutional linking of enforcement agencies across BRICS nations.
“The objective is to foster a more coordinated and rapid response to extradition requests,” a senior government official noted. “Given that modern financial crimes frequently span multiple jurisdictions, leveraging complex digital tools and offshore entities, our current response time must improve significantly.”
This initiative comes as India continues its high-profile efforts to bring fugitive diamantaires like Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi to justice. Both individuals remain the subjects of ongoing, lengthy extradition proceedings in international courts, highlighting the limitations of the current global legal infrastructure.
Moving Beyond Traditional Channels
The proposed system is intended to complement—not replace—formal Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs) and existing extradition protocols. By providing investigators with “trusted channels” to communicate with their international counterparts early in a case, authorities hope to prevent the dissipation of illicit assets.
With financial crimes increasingly involving fintech platforms, virtual digital assets, and intricate layers of shell companies, the window of opportunity to freeze proceeds of crime is narrowing. The Indian proposal aims to address these technical hurdles by fostering real-time cooperation, which is essential to tracking fugitives who exploit the speed of cross-border financial movement.
Capacity Building and Regional Leadership
The push for this framework aligns with India’s broader agenda during its BRICS presidency, which emphasizes strengthening security and economic cooperation. Ahead of the summit, which will mark two decades since the group’s formalization in 2006, India has already received positive feedback from partner enforcement agencies during preliminary network meetings.
To further bolster this regional cooperation, the Department of Revenue, in tandem with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Cell, is organizing an Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) capacity-building program. Scheduled for September 7–11 at the Rashtriya Raksha University in Gandhinagar, the event will gather policymakers, financial intelligence units, and law-enforcement experts from all BRICS nations.
This training program serves as a precursor to the main summit in New Delhi on September 12 and 13. By advocating for these reforms, India is positioning itself as a proactive leader in the global fight against financial corruption, building upon its previous successes in promoting consensus-based models for crypto-asset regulation during its G20 presidency. If adopted, the new framework could significantly reduce the time-intensive nature of current extradition procedures, marking a pivotal step in trans-border justice.
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