CBI approaches Interpol to locate Nirav Modi, family

He is alleged to have carried out fraudulent transactions worth over ₹ 11,400 crore in Punjab National Bank

Security guards stand inside a Nirav Modi showroom

The CBI has approached the Interpol to locate billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi and his family. They left the country in January first week, weeks before the scam was reported to the CBI, officials said.

The CBI approached the Interpol with a request of issuing a Diffusion Notice, which was aimed at locating an individual, the officials said.

“This [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. A diffusion is circulated directly by an NCB [CBI in this case] to the member countries of their choice, or to the entire INTERPOL membership and is simultaneously recorded in Interpol’s Information System,” the website of Interpol says.

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Leave country January first week

Modi (46), who was alleged to have carried out fraudulent transactions worth over ₹ 11,400 crore in Punjab National Bank (PNB), left India on January 1, while his brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, departed from the country the same day.

However, whether they travelled together has to be probed, they officials said.

Modi’s wife Ami, a United States citizen, left on January 6 and his uncle and business partner Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali jewellery chain, left on January 4, the officials said.

The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate have approached the government seeking the revocation of the passports of Modi and Chokshi.

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Modi, a regular on the lists of rich and famous Indians since 2013, was booked by the CBI, along with wife, brother and Choksi on January 31, for allegedly cheating PNB to the tune of ₹ 280 crore.

The bank again approached the CBI within a fortnight of the first complaint giving details of more transactions, which were over ₹ 11,400 crore.

The question as to why PNB did not send a complaint to the CBI and decided to give it in tranches is also under the scanner of the investigating agency, the officials said.

The bank has claimed in three complaints to the CBI that so far it has detected 150 Letters of Undertaking (LoUs), which were fraudulently issued by its officials in connivance with Modi and the other accused in the case, the officials said.

A LoU is a letter of comfort issued by one bank to branches of other banks, based on which foreign branches offer credit to buyers.