Enforcement Directorate seizes Rs 2,178 crore

India’s Enforcement Directorate just put a hard number on one of its most aggressive tools. In its 2025-26 annual report, the agency said proceedings under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act have been started against 54 people, 21 have been formally declared fugitive economic offenders, and assets worth about(indianexpress.com)irav Modi, Vijay Mallya, Sanjay Bhandari, and Hajra Iqbal Memon among them. (indianexpress.com)-10667031/)) ### What is this law actually for? The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, passed in 2018, was built for a specific problem — big-ticket fraud suspects leaving India or staying abroad and refusing to return for criminal proceedings. The point is not just to label them fugitives. The point is to let the state confiscate their properties and weaken the incentive to stay out of reach while cases drag on. (static.pib.gov.in) ### Who counts as a fugitive economic offe(indianexpress.com)s abroad and refuses to come back. A special court has to declare the person an FEO. So this is not just an ED press release category — it is a court-backed status with property consequences. (static.pib.gov.in) ### Why does ₹2,178 crore matter? Because this is the part that bites. Criminal trials and extra(static.pib.gov.in)d to FEO cases has now reached roughly ₹2,178.34 crore. That does not mean India has recovered every rupee lost in these frauds — far from it — but it does show the agency is using the law as a financial pressure tool, not just a symbolic one. (indianexpress.com) exact gap this law was written to close. Both are tied to massive bank-fraud allegations and both spent years outside India while legal proceedings continued. The FEO framework is basically India’s answer to that recurring spectacle — accused high-value offenders abroad, domestic cases moving slowly, and public anger over whether the state can actually claw anything back. (indianexpress.com)tal FEO declarations happened in 2025-26 alone. That suggests the agency accelerated its use of the law in the last fiscal year, even as it marked its 70th year and highlighted broader enforcement numbers across money-laundering and foreign-exchange cases. (indianexpress.com) ### Why is the government defending the ED so l(indianexpress.com) it the nation’s shield against financial crimes and pushed back on the charge that it is used to target opponents. That framing tells you the real backdrop — every enforcement success is also part of a larger fight over whether the agency is neutral, selective, or both. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) from this? The real story is not just that 21 people have been tagged as fugitives. It is that India is leaning harder on a law designed to punish absence itself. If extradition is the long game, confiscation is the near-term one — and the ED wants everyone to notice that shift. (indianexpress.com)