The Red Notices issued against Neeshal and Nehal , brothers of Nirav Modi, the “mastermind” of the Punjab National Bank fraud, are not available on the Interpol website anymore. It is not clear whether the notices have been executed or withdrawn.
The CBI’s website, which also maintains a list of the wanted persons against whom Interpol Red Notices have been issued, had Neeshal’s particulars on Sunday, but there was no entry in the name of Nehal. The CBI is the nodal agency for the Interpol in India.
An official of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said there was no information on the detention of any of the two accused abroad. The CBI is yet to respond.
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The CBI is probing criminal charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code. The ED is pursuing the money trail and has attached a large number of assets in India and abroad.
The alleged scam involves ₹13,578 crore. Nirav Modi’s uncle Mehul Choksi is also a prime accused.
At the request of both agencies, the Interpol had issued notices against some other accused, including Choksi, Aditya Nanavati and Mihir Bhansali. They are still available on its website.
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The notices against Nirav Modi, his brother Neeshal and their aide Subhash Parab were opened in July 2018. The notice was issued against his sister Purvi in September 2018 and against Nehal a year later. Nirav Modi is an Indian national and his sister and brothers are of Belgian nationality.
It is alleged that Nehal looked after two companies for Nirav Modi. These companies received $50 million from dummy entities.
When the scam was detected, Nehal allegedly took away diamonds worth $6 million, 3.5 million in UAE dirham, and 50 kg of gold. He was accused of destroying digital evidence in Dubai. In the case of Mehul Choksi, he was in charge of Samuels Jewellers INC and Diamlink Inc, which got $19 million from his uncle’s Dubai-based shell firms.
Mr. Choksi is fighting an extradition case in Antigua and Barbuda, of which citizenship he had taken months before he fled India in January 2018. Based on the Red Notice, Nirav Modi was arrested in London this March, and he is also facing extradition proceedings.