diff --git a/Lib/imputil.py b/Lib/imputil.py
index 3185d7d94cc..2f87d69be97 100644
--- a/Lib/imputil.py
+++ b/Lib/imputil.py
@@ -282,7 +282,8 @@ def _process_result(self, (ispkg, code, values), fqname):
         if not is_module:
             exec code in module.__dict__
 
-        return module
+        # fetch from sys.modules instead of returning module directly.
+        return sys.modules[fqname]
 
     def _load_tail(self, m, parts):
         """Import the rest of the modules, down from the top-level module.