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'Despite alert, Nirav Modi travelled on revoked passport to five countries'
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IANS | 19 Jun, 2018
Nirav Modi, the prime accused in a Rs 13,500 crore fraud at the Punjab
National Bank (PNB), travelled multiple times to Britain, US, China,
Cuba and France on a revoked Indian passport with additional booklets,
despite his details shared on the "central database of Interpol
internationally", according to inputs given by Britain to Indian
agencies.
Informed sources said that Nirav Modi travelled five
times between these countries on his revoked passport No Z1781888, which
has additional six booklets carrying different series, between February
10 and March 31.
The Indian agencies said a June 5 letter,
shared by Britain, revealed that the fugitive businessman travelled from
US' John F. Kennedy International Airport to Britain's Heathrow Airport
on February 10, from Frank Pais Airport in Cuba to Heathrow on February
15, from Heathrow to Hong Kong International Airport on March 15, from
there back to Heathrow on March 28 and from Heathrow to Charles de
Gaulle Airport in France on March 31.
"Information about Nirav
Modi was updated on central database of Interpol internationally on
February 15 when we issued a diffusion notice against him and shared it
with 192 Interpol member countries. His passport details was also
updated just after it was revoked by MEA (Ministry of External
Affairs)," Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) spokesperson Abhishek
Dayal told IANS.
A diffusion notice is issued directly by an
international entity to the countries of their choice to take their help
in identifying location, physical description, photograph and
fingerprints of an accused wanted in offence with which he or she is
charged. The notice is issued through the Interpol, an international
police organization, to facilitate international police cooperation.
Interpol
offices in Britain, US, France, United Arab Emirates, Belgium and
Singapore were informed about revocation of Nirav Modi's passport but
these Interpol member countries didn't inform India about his movements,
said sources, adding they were shared the information about the
fugitive more than four times since the diffusion notice was issued.
Only
Britain responded to India's diffusion notice issued to it on April 25,
May 22, May 24 and May 28, but the response came in June, said the
sources.
"UK Interpol should have informed India Interpol (CBI)
when Nirav Modi travelled from London to Belgium," said the CBI source,
adding they still did not know the exact locations of the diamond
merchant but the details of his further movements are supposed to be
shared with them soon.
Sources said "the details received from
Britain authorities in response to the diffusion notice have been shared
with other sister agencies in foreign countries". Further investigation
and action in this regard is in progress, they said.
But the
sources did not throw any light on whether the British communication
talked about the presence of the fugitive in that country.
The
CBI on June 11 also approached Interpol to issue Red Corner Notices
(RCN) against Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, promoter of
Gitanjali Group, also wanted in the PNB fraud. The RCNs were issued to
help track Nirav Modi and Choksi and return them to India through
official channels to face trial in the bank scam case in which the CBI
recently filed two chargesheets.
Letters Rogatory (LRs) in the
cases lodged against Nirav Modi by the Enforcement Directorate, the CBI
and the Income Tax Department were sent to the UK Central Authority
(UKCA) on March 19, April 14 and April 15 respectively.
Nirav
Modi, his wife, his brother and Choksi fled the country before the PNB
complained against their companies, saying it had been cheated through
fraudulent issue of Letters of Undertakings and Foreign Letters of
Credit.
In its chargesheets filed last month, the CBI alleged
that Nirav Modi, through his companies, siphoned off funds to the tune
of Rs 6,498.20 crore using fraudulent LoUs issued from PNB's Brady House
branch in Mumbai. Choksi swindled Rs 7,080.86 crore, making it possibly
the biggest banking scam in the country, it alleged.
An additional loan default of over Rs 5,000 crore by Choksi's companies is also being probed by the CBI.
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