IS NIRAV CASE COMPROMISED?
‘Hacked’ CBI account may explain why Nirav Modi stays ahead of law
The CBI admitted on Monday that though information about Nirav Modi’s passport being revoked had been flashed in the Interpol central database on February 24, several countries ignored the alert and still allowed him to travel.The admission came even as TV channel News 18 revealed that the official email account of CBI Joint Director Rajiv Singh, who heads the banking fraud division, which is probing the Rs 13,000 crore Nirav Modi bank fraud case, has been blocked.
The channel said there is apprehension that this account had been compromised, and Nirav Modi was able to keep himself informed about the steps that were being initiated against him. This way, he was able to stay one step ahead of the law and criss-cross the continents with ease.
The suspicious activity on Rajiv Singh’s email account was first noticed on May 16. Sources told the channel said the account was accessed from a location in Shimla, and it was used to send out bulk mails. The CBI was then informed and agencies were asked to probe the possibility of Singh’s account having been hacked. Singh’s desktop was also seized. It seems the agencies were curious why Singh did not immediately report the suspicious activity. Singh, meanwhile, has been repatriated to his home cadre of Tripura.
After TV channels broke the story, the CBI came out with a denial that the probe under its former Joint Director Rajiv Singh had been compromised. No breach of information relating to investigation has been found as of now, a spokesperson said. However, the CBI has admitted that there was "single suspicious activity" on a particular day, which triggered the in-built security system, leading to the account being blocked automatically. It is all being attributed to a spam.
But despite the CBI clarification doubts may persist. This is because, even after the information about revocation of Nirav Modi’s passport was flashed in the Interpol central database, the diamond merchant travelled from Heathrow Airport in London to Hong Kong on March 15, from JFK Airport in New York to Heathrow on March 28 and from Heathrow to Charles De Gaulle, Paris, on March 31. In fact, he had travelled as early as June 12 on his passport.