Countries Let Nirav Modi Travel On Cancelled Passport Despite Alert

New Delhi: Fugitive jeweler Nirav Modi managed to travel through several countries even though information about his passport being cancelled by India was flashed in the Interpol central database on February 24, the CBI said on Monday.

According to the UK, Nirav Modi used the passport to fly from New York to London on February 10, from Hong Kong to London on February 15, from London to Hong Kong on March 15, from New York to London on March 28 and from London to Paris on March 31.

The CBI said it had shared the information on his passport in the 'diffusion' notice issued through Interpol on February 15. But Interpol branches of Belgium and US didn't cooperate, say sources.

A diffusion, which is less formal than a red corner notice, is a request to the Interpol seeking the arrest of a person or any information on them.
 "After the passport was cancelled by External Affairs Ministry, we had updated this information in the diffusion notice. The information that passport of Nirav Modi has been revoked was provided in the Interpol central database, available to all the member countries, on February 24," CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said.

The CBI followed it up with six countries where Nirav Modi was suspected to have fled and requested these countries to share information about him.

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Reminders were sent to the Interpol coordination agency of UK on April 25, May 22, May 24 and May 28, agency sources said.

Similar reminders were also sent to the agencies of US, Singapore, Belgium, UAE and France.

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Nirav Modi is accused of a mega swindle of the Punjab National Bank (PNB), the second-largest government bank, by securing overseas loans worth Rs 13,000 crore through fraud guarantees. He and his uncle fled India in January, weeks before the CBI started investigating the PNB fraud.  

The CBI has approached the Interpol for a Red Corner Notice aimed at bringing Nirav Modi back for facing trial in the cases against them.