‘Nirav visited UK five times after passport was revoked’
THE OFFICIAL ADDED THAT THE AGENCY HAS NOT BEEN PROVIDED THE TRAVEL DETAILS OF NIRAV MODI BEYOND MARCH 31
NEWDELHI: Even after revocation of his passport, fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi managed to travel to the US, the UK, Hong Kong and France, CBI officials said on Monday.
As a first measure to locate Nirav Modi, the agency had issued a ‘diffusion’ notice through Interpol on February 15 against the diamond trader who is facing a multi-agency probe here.
“After the passport was revoked/cancelled by the external affairs ministry, we had updated this information in the diffusion notice. The information that the passport of Nirav Modi has been revoked was provided in the Interpol central database, available to all the member countries, on February 24,” CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said.
Dayal added the diffusion notice is sent to all 190 member countries of the Interpol but the agency separately pursued the matter with six countries – the US, the UK, France, Belgium, Singapore and the UAE – where it was suspected Modi may have fled to. The agency asked these countries to share information about his whereabouts and movements.
Besides the ministry of external affairs had also sent a separate request to Hong Kong for detaining Nirav Modi and sending back to India.
Agency officials familiar with the matter said the Interpol coordination agency of the United Kingdom was sent reminders as well on April 25, May 22, May 24 and May 28 and similar missives were sent to the rest of the five countries.
Only the UK so far has provided details about the entry and exit of Modi up to March 31.
The official said as per the details provided by the UK on June 5, Nirav Modi arrived from New York to London’s Heathrow airport on February 10 and on February 15 again he reached Heathrow from Hong Kong, then on March 15 he travelled from Heathrow to Hong Kong, again on March 28 he reached Heathrow from New York and on March 31 he went to Paris from London.
The official added that the agency has not been provided the travel details of Nirav Modi beyond March 31 and in all likelihood he has used passport number Z 1781888 for travel.
Modi and his maternal uncle Mehul Choksi have been accused by the state-owned Punjab National Bank of defrauding it to the tune of over ₹13,000 crore. Both the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have filed formal charges against them and moved for the issuance of an Interpol Red Notice against them for their arrest and deportation.
The official added that Modi was before the revoked passport, Modi was issued five passport booklets (supposed to have been cancelled) earlier as well and the agency is quoting numbers of all booklets in its further communication with Interpol as well other key countries.