New Delhi: The CBI has sought Interpol Red Corner Notices against billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, who had absconded days before over the $2 billion banking fraud allegedly perpetrated by them on state-run Punjab National Bank came to light, officials said.
Choksi was reported to be in New York where he was allegedly seen enjoying a meal in a lavish upmarket restaurant but his exact location remains unknown, they said.
Left with no choice, the CBI has asked the Interpol to issue a Red Corner Notice against Modi and Choksi, which would mean that the member countries of the Lyon-based international police cooperation agency can arrest and later deport or extradite them, they said.
Nirav Modi was last publicly seen in a Press Information Bureau group photograph of CEOs and top brass of Indian corporate sector with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Davos, Switzerland in late January.
Earlier, a senior UK Foreign Office official was quoted as saying, “There are always a number of complicated cases that add a little tension and spice to our relationship with India. But there is also an appreciation from both sides that we have a legal process that has to be gone through and that we are of course governed by human rights legislation.”
When contacted by media, the Home Office said that “we are not commenting on individual cases”.
The CBI had in May filed two charge sheets in the case before a Mumbai court. The ED has also filed its charge sheet in the case involving Nirav Modi, who is in his late 40s, and his associates, officials in New Delhi said.
