The Interpol has placed the Red Corner Notice against fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi’s brother Nehal in public view again, after he recently lost an appeal against its issuance by the international police cooperation body last year, on the request of Indian agencies, officials said. A Belgian citizen, Nehal Deepak Modi is wanted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a case of alleged fraud committed by his elder brother, Nirav, in the Punjab National Bank (PNB), they added. Nehal Modi’s name figured as the accused number 27 in the supplementary chargesheet filed by the CBI, which charged him for destroying evidence in Dubai to cover the tracks of the alleged crime, the officials said.
Based on a request from Indian agencies, the Interpol had issued a Red Corner Notice (RCN) against Nehal Modi and put it up for public viewing to enable gathering of information about him. RCN is a request to law-enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender or similar legal action.
Nehal Modi challenged it before the Commission for Control of Interpol’s Files (CCF), an independent body that ensures that all personal data processed through Interpol’s channels conforms to the rules of the organisation.
Any individual can approach it with a request for deletion or correction of information held in the Interpol Information System.
The CCF had sought clarifications on Nehal Modi’s arguments from the CBI, which provided a strong counter-argument against his plea. After going through the exhaustive response filed by the agency, which keenly followed up the matter, the CCF rejected Nehal Modi’s plea recently and theN was again put in public domain, the officials added.
In its chargesheet, the central agency has alleged that Nehal Modi had threatened the directors of Dubai-based shell companies, used by Nirav Modi to show fair businesses, to prevent them from joining investigations. It is alleged that he forcibly shifted them from Dubai to Cairo, after destroying their mobile phones, laptops and the server to cover the tracks.
These persons, employees of Nirav Modi Group companies, were forced to sign certain documents to show that they were the real owners of those companies in Dubai and Hong Kong, which were shown as engaged in export and import with the three accused firms — Diamonds R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamond — all controlled by Nirav Modi, the CBI has alleged.
The three companies benefitted from the buyer’s credit obtained from overseas banks on the strength of Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) fraudulently issued from Mumbai’s Brady House branch of the PNB, in connivance with bank officials.
-PTI
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