‘Gaps’ in system helped Nirav travel on a revoked passport
persists over how Nirav Modi, the main suspect in the alleged ~14,000 crore fraud at Punjab National Bank, has been able to travel internationally despite having his passport revoked by Indian authorities. Hindustan Times explains how the revocation process works and the gaps in the system that may have helped the fugitive jeweller.
How is an Indian passport revoked and on what grounds?
Grounds are laid out in the Indian Passport Act of 1967 for revoking and impounding of a passport by the passport issuing authority in the ministry of external affairs (MEA). They include the following: suppressing material information or providing wrong information; obtaining another passport; safeguarding the interests of the “sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of India, friendly relations of India with any foreign country, or in the interests of the general public”; conviction of the passport holder and sentencing to imprisonment of not less than two years; pending proceedings before a criminal court.
The document can also be revoked if it is brought to the passport authority’s notice that a warrant or summons for the appearance, or a warrant for the arrest, of the holder of the passport or travel document has been issued by a court; or if an order prohibiting the departure from India of the holder of the passport or other travel document has been issued by any court and the passport authority is satisfied that a warrant or summons has been so issued or an order has been so made.
When a passport is revoked, what is the process followed thereafter both internally and externally to enforce the cancellation of the passport?
Once a passport is revoked, the MEA makes the entry in an internal database to show it as revoked. The same information is given out to immigration authorities so that the holder of a passport cannot use the revoked document to travel out of the country. The holder of the passport is told to return the passport to the nearest passport office to cancel it physically. Externally, the MEA informs an investigative agency on the revocation of the passport; the agency in turn informs Interpol, which issues an alert notice and includes the person’s name in its database.
In Nirav Modi’s case, the MEA informed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) about the revocation of his passport. The CBI said on February 15 it got a “diffusion” — a request for cooperation or alert mechanism — issued by Interpol against Nirav Modi. A diffusion is less formal than a notice, but is also used to request the arrest or location of an individual or additional information in relation to a police investigation. It is circulated directly by the nodal investigative agency of the country (in India, its CBI) with Interpol to the member countries of their choice, or to the entire Interpol membership and is simultaneously recorded in Interpol’s information system.
What is the interface with Interpol?
The CBI is the nodal agency for interactions with Interpol and it deals with any request that comes from other member countries seeking assistance in a probe. Any request seeking the help of Interpol on any investigation-related matter from any state police is also routed through the CBI.
Once a passport is revoked, can an Indian national travel internationally?
Ideally, no. Information about the revocation of an Indian passport gets fed into a system that is expected to be shared the world over, making the travel of the Indian passport holder legally impossible. Interpol is the world’s largest international police organisation, with 192 countries as its members.
What happened in the case of Nirav Modi? When was the passport revoked?
On the advice of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which deals with violation of foreign exchange rules and money laundering, the passport issuing authority in the MEA, suspended the validity of the passports of Nirav Deepak Modi and Mehul Chinubhai Choksi with immediate effect for a period of four weeks on February 16, asking them to furnish reasons as to why their passports should not be revoked in a week’s time. After they failed to respond, the passports were revoked on February 23, 2018. CBI’s official spokesperson has said that “after getting diffusion notice against Modi issued through Interpol on February 15, we also got information about his revoked passport updated in Interpol’s database. Following this, we identified six countries where we suspected he could move. We kept in touch with all these countries through their Interpol offices. We kept writing to them, reminding them on almost weekly basis.”
NEWDELHI:Confusion
How could he travel on a revoked passport?
A diffusion notice, unlike a Red Corner notice, doesn’t mandate the arrest of a person. So the countries Nirav Modi had travelled to might have ignored the diffusion notice. How he managed to travel remains unclear since different agencies are saying different things. For example, ED officials said he used six passports, the CBI said he travelled on revoked passports, and MEA officials said all his five previous passports were physically cancelled and the only Indian travel document he had as per its records was revoked on February 23. There are suspicions that earlier passports may not have been stamped as cancelled and he may have used one of them to travel after the revocation of his one active Indian passport.
What happens when an Indian passport is swiped in an international airport outside?
It records entry/exit. The immigration offices have different databases such as the passport details of wanted persons shared by Interpol, similar requests made by other countries. So the entry is checked against this data as well.
How is the database maintained and checked?
Once a passport is revoked, the details are submitted to Interpol’s database. The database is accessible to all member-countries. It is up to the member-countries to act upon it. The CBI not only updated Interpol database after the revocation of Nirav Modi’s passport; it took up the issue with six countries – the US, the UK, France, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Belgium -- where it was suspected that Nirav Modi may go. But among the six countries only the UK submitted details about his entries and exits at Heathrow on June 5. The details are up to March 31. There is no further communication from these countries, CBI officials say. Besides, India had also sent a separate request through MEA to Hong Kong to arrest Nirav Modi.
THERE ARE SUSPICIONS THAT NIRAV MODI’S FIVE EARLIER PASSPORTS MAY NOT HAVE BEEN STAMPED CANCELLED AND HE MAY HAVE USED ONE OF THEM TO TRAVEL