Gold Fraud: Fugitive Monica Kapoor Extradited after 25 Years
July 13, 25
(IDEX Online) - Monika Kapoor, who fled India more than 25 years ago, has been extradited from the US, accused of fraudulently obtaining duty-free gold import licenses.
Kapoor, formerly proprietor of the Delhi-based Monika Overseas, and import-export business, is alleged to have falsified export documents to claim eligibility for tax exemptions, and then to have sold them to another company (Deep Exports, Ahmedabad), which used them to import gold duty-free.
The enterprise cost the Indian government Rs 14.4m (USD 350,000 at historic exchange rates) in lost revenue.
Kapoor fled to the US in 1999, just before an investigation began into the fraud. Her brothers Rajan Khanna and Rajeev Khanna were convicted by a Delhi court in December 2017.
After years of legal proceedings in the US, including appeals against extradition on humanitarian grounds, the US Court of Appeals upheld her extradition in March 2025.
India's CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) said the extradition was "a major breakthrough".
In a statement it said: "Two decades chase of CBI ended today (9 July 2025) with the successful extradition of fugitive Ms. Monika Kapoor, who is accused in a 2002 Import-Export fraud and was on run since then from USA …
"Following intense coordination with authorities in the USA, a CBI team travelled to US to take custody of the fugitive."