Officials from the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday attended a multi-agency meeting held by the Ministry of External Affairs on preparations for extradition of fugitive economic offenders, particularly diamond merchant Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi.
Among those present at the meeting were officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs. They discussed various measures to ensure expeditious extradition of the wanted persons and reviewed the developments in the case.
Current whereabouts
In the case of Mr. Modi, the investigating agencies are yet to establish his current whereabouts through Interpol. He is now suspected to be in Brussels (Belgium) and probe agencies may soon contact the authorities there.
His subsequent movements are not yet clear. The fugitive businessman was earlier travelling on an Indian passport, which had been revoked by the MEA in February. The agencies, it is learnt, have been told that upon revocation of passports in such cases, a communication is usually sent to all the countries informing them of the decision. However, there is no system of real-time data sharing on passport revocations.
“As the passport — carrying a valid visa — remains in the person’s possession, the accused may still be able to use it for further travels. It happens mostly because there is no global integrated data mechanism to keep an updated record of passport revocations in different countries,” said an official.
