New Delhi, April 21: In a bid to bring back defaulters of huge bank loans who escape to refuges abroad, the Union Cabinet on Saturday approved an ordinance that would provide for attachment and confiscation of the properties of the economic offenders. The decision to issue The Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance, 2018 was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which comes in the wake of the recent multi-crore Punjab National Bank fraud case, in which the main accused diamond trader Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi fled the country after duping the bank to the tune of over Rs. 30,000 crore. Some other similar offenders, including businessman Vijay Mallya, who headed the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, also escaped to London a few years after running up huge debts to consortiums of banks. Sources said the Ordinance aims at deterring economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts.