After 20 Years On the Run, Fugitive Monika Kapoor Extradited from US to India

After more than two decades on the run, fugitive economic offender Monika Kapoor is being brought back to India from the United States on Wednesday. As per reports, a flight carrying Kapoor is expected to land in India on Wednesday night.

Kapoor, wanted in a high-profile import-export fraud case dating back to the late 1990s, had fled the country in 1999 and remained absconding until her extradition was approved by a US court earlier this year.

Kapoor's extradition marks the end of a 20-year-long pursuit by Indian authorities, who had initiated the process in 2010 under the bilateral extradition treaty between India and the United States.

A statement issued by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) confirmed the extradition and detailed Kapoor's alleged involvement in the case. Kapoor, who ran a company named Monika Overseas, is accused of orchestrating a criminal conspiracy with her brothers, Rajan Khanna and Rajiv Khanna, to defraud the Indian government by forging export documents in 1998. These forged documents—including shipping bills, invoices, and bank certificates—were used to obtain six replenishment licenses to import duty-free gold worth ₹2.36 crore.

The trio allegedly sold these licenses at a premium to Deep Exports, a firm based in Ahmedabad. The gold imported using the fraudulently obtained licenses resulted in a loss of approximately ₹1.44 crore to the government exchequer in 1998 alone.

After a thorough investigation, the CBI filed a chargesheet against Monika Kapoor and her brothers on March 31, 2004, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including criminal conspiracy (Section 120-B), cheating (Section 420), and forgery (Sections 467, 468, 471). The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Saket District Court in New Delhi had convicted Rajan Khanna and Rajiv Khanna in the case on December 20, 2017.

The total financial loss caused by the fraud is estimated to be over USD 679,000 (approximately ₹5.6 crore).

Kapoor’s return to India is seen as a significant breakthrough in the CBI’s efforts to bring economic offenders to justice. Authorities are expected to produce her before a designated court in Delhi for further proceedings.

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