CBI brings back economic offender Monika Kapoor from US after 25 years

Monika Kapoor, wanted in a jewellery import fraud case since 1999, is being extradited from the US after a 25-year run. The CBI took her custody following a US court order, with her return flight expected Wednesday night.

New Delhi: The CBI is bringing back alleged economic offender Monika Kapoor from the USA after her extradition, ending her more than 25-year-long run from the law, officials said Wednesday.

The central agency has taken Kapoor’s custody in the USA and boarded an American Airlines flight to India, which is likely to land on Wednesday night, they said.

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The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York had cleared her extradition under the bilateral extradition treaty between India and the USA.

The secretary of state had subsequently issued a surrender warrant 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).

Kapoor went to the USA in 1999 after the alleged fraud where she along with her two brothers forged documents for 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 USD 679000 to Indian exchequer. India had approached the USA seeking Kapoor’s extradition in October, 2010 pursuant to the Treaty on Extradition between the two countries, the officials said.