RTI shocker: Financial crimes worth Rs 19,671 crore in Mumbai alone since 2015

Nirav Modi - Rs 12,636 cr

Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya and Lalit Modi aren't the only fraudsters giving the police a run for their money. While these three are being chased by the CBI, Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) is on the hunt for 184 financial felons, who too are on the run. What's more, since 2015, the EOW has registered cases to the tune of Rs 19,671 crore, but only Rs 2.5 crore has been refunded to defrauded investors so far.

While the CBI continues to chase after the big three - Modi, Modi and Mallya - closer home in Mumbai, the EOW has not had better luck either. Even in the few cases that the department has managed to bring to completion, the conviction rate is poor. From 2015 to February 9, 2018, out of a total of 80 cases filed in court, offenders were convicted in only 20, while they were acquitted in 60 cases.

Vijay Mallya - Rs 9,000 cr

Rise in crimes
This information came to light after activist Jeetendra Ghadge sent a query to the Mumbai police under the Right To Information (RTI) Act. He stated that the law has not proved to be a deterrent for such criminals. "There is a trend now, of fleecing people of money and then becoming untraceable. More stringent norms need to be introduced to prevent such economic offences," Ghadge added.

Ghadge isn't wrong in raising the alarm; according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), there has been an 80 per cent rise in economic offences in the country in the past decade. In 2006, the economic offence rate per 100,000 people stood at 6.6, but this rose to 11.9 in 2015.

Lalit Modi - Rs 1,760 cr

EOW drowning
The EOW handles major crimes valued above Rs 50 lakh; the city police transfers these cases to the EOW for speedy investigation. However, a senior official from the EOW stated that the department was facing a severe shortage of manpower. "Every year, the number of cases keeps rising, but the staff strength remains the same. This affects the overall performance."

The wing is supposed to have 200 sanctioned officials, but 50% of these posts are vacant. Notably, staff strength is thinnest at the Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) level, with 79 out of 101 posts vacant. This leaves very few officers to do the legwork in investigations. Despite repeated attempts to contact Ashutosh Dumbre, joint commissioner of police (EOW), he remained unavailable for comment.

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