Nirav Modi in UK, CBI writes to Interpol for red corner notice
The United Kingdom has confirmed that Indian diamantaire Nirav Modi, who is at the centre of a money laundering case linked to the over ~13,000 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, is currently in that country, top officials said on Monday.
UK minister Baroness Williams has also assured Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, at a meeting here, Britain’s full cooperation in the Government of India’s efforts to expedite Nirav Modi, liquor baron Vijay Mallya and others extradition.
“UK authorities have confirmed Nirav Modi’s presence in Britain,” an official privy to the meeting said.
The CBI has asked the Interpol to issue a Red Corner Notice against Modi in the over $2 billion banking scam involving Punjab National Bank, officials said.
The agency has written to the Interpol to issue the notice which would mean that the member countries of the Lyonbased international police cooperation agency can arrest and extradite Nirav Modi who fled the country in the first week of January, weeks before the bank filed a complaint with the CBI.
Nirav Modi was last publicly seen in a Press Information Bureau group photograph of CEOs and top brass of Indian corporate sector with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Davos, Switzerland.
A week later, the CBI registered an FIR against him on the basis of complaint against him and his uncle Mehul Choksi.
His brother and wife were also named as accused in the FIR. His wife Ami, a US citizen, brother Nishal a Belgian citizen, and uncle Choksi, Gitanjali group’s promoter, had also left the country in the first week of January.
The case pertains to allegedly cheating the state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) through fraudulent issuance of Letters of Undertakings (LoUs) and Foreign Letters of Credit (FLCs).
The agency recently chargesheeted both Nirav Modi and Choksi separately in the scam. It has now approached the Interpol for a Red Corner Notice aimed at bringing Nirav Modi back for facing trial in the cases against them, the sources said.
The CBI, in its charge sheets filed on May 14, had alleged that Nirav Modi, through his companies, siphoned off funds to the tune of ₹6,498.20 crore using fraudulent LoUs issued from PNB’s Brady House branch in Mumbai.
Choksi allegedly swindled ₹7,080.86 crore, making it possibly the biggest banking scam in the country, it alleged.
An additional loan default of over ₹5,000 crore to Choksi’s companies is also a matter of probe under the CBI.
It is alleged that Nirav Modi and Choksi through their companies availed credit from overseas branches of Indian banks.
NEWDELHI: