Interpol issues red notice against Nirav Modi, his brother and a former employee
The red notice is a request to locate and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition.
- Jul 2, 2018,
- Updated Jul 2, 2018 1:58 PM IST
The Interpol has just issued a red corner notice against Nirav Modi, accused of defrauding the Punjab National Bank of over Rs 13,000 crore, acting on the request of India's CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The same notice has also been issued against his brother Nishal and Subhash Parab, an executive in one of Modi's companies.
The red notice is a request to locate and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition. It is issued by the General Secretariat at the request of a member country or an international tribunal based on a valid national arrest warrant.
In its charge sheets filed last month, the CBI had alleged that Modi, through his companies, siphoned off funds to the tune of Rs 6,498.20 crore using fraudulent guarantees issued from PNB's Brady House branch in Mumbai. His uncle, Mehul Choksi, swindled an additional Rs 7080 crore, possibly making it the biggest banking scam in the country, it alleged. The ED, too, filed a nearly 12,000-page charge sheet under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, alleging that over Rs 6,400 crore of bank funds were laundered abroad to dummy companies by Modi and others.
Significantly, the red notice is not an international arrest warrant. Interpol cannot compel any of its 192 member countries to arrest an individual who is the subject of a Red Notice. But if arrested, India will be able to push for Modi's extradition. The diamantaire-turned-con artist extraordinaire left the country along with his family in the first week of January-shortly before the scam broke.
Sources told The Times of India that the CBI had previously tried to track Modi's movements through a diffusion notice issued through the Interpol on February 15. But it had limited success as only the United Kingdom responded to the CBI request. In the meantime, despite the Indian government revoking his passport in February, Modi had reportedly managed to travel in and out of Britain at least four times. The buzz is that his current location is unknown.
With PTI inputs
The Interpol has just issued a red corner notice against Nirav Modi, accused of defrauding the Punjab National Bank of over Rs 13,000 crore, acting on the request of India's CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The same notice has also been issued against his brother Nishal and Subhash Parab, an executive in one of Modi's companies.
The red notice is a request to locate and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition. It is issued by the General Secretariat at the request of a member country or an international tribunal based on a valid national arrest warrant.
In its charge sheets filed last month, the CBI had alleged that Modi, through his companies, siphoned off funds to the tune of Rs 6,498.20 crore using fraudulent guarantees issued from PNB's Brady House branch in Mumbai. His uncle, Mehul Choksi, swindled an additional Rs 7080 crore, possibly making it the biggest banking scam in the country, it alleged. The ED, too, filed a nearly 12,000-page charge sheet under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, alleging that over Rs 6,400 crore of bank funds were laundered abroad to dummy companies by Modi and others.
Significantly, the red notice is not an international arrest warrant. Interpol cannot compel any of its 192 member countries to arrest an individual who is the subject of a Red Notice. But if arrested, India will be able to push for Modi's extradition. The diamantaire-turned-con artist extraordinaire left the country along with his family in the first week of January-shortly before the scam broke.
Sources told The Times of India that the CBI had previously tried to track Modi's movements through a diffusion notice issued through the Interpol on February 15. But it had limited success as only the United Kingdom responded to the CBI request. In the meantime, despite the Indian government revoking his passport in February, Modi had reportedly managed to travel in and out of Britain at least four times. The buzz is that his current location is unknown.
With PTI inputs