CBI starts Nirav Modi’s kin extradition process

New Delhi: The CBI has initiated the extradition process against Neeshal Modi, brother of the fugitive billionaire Nirav Modi — the alleged mastermind of the multi-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.

According to sources, the Central probe agency moved the extradition request of Modi to the Union home ministry on Friday. The home ministry will now send it to Belgium, where Neeshal Modi is believed to be holding up, through the diplomatic channel.

The Interpol issued a Red Corner Notice (RCN) against Neeshal Modi, a Belgian national, on the request of the CBI, sources said. In its RCN issued against a fugitive, the Interpol asks its member countries to arrest or detain the person if spotted in their countries after which extradition or deportation proceedings can begin. India has extradition treaty with Belgium, they added. There are allegations that Neeshal Modi was actively involved in the scam. He is alleged to be the beneficiary of funds siphoned off, instrumental in introducing dummy partners and changing pattern of partnership structure of companies, sources said.

Neeshal Modi, along with his brother Nirav Modi and uncle Mehul Choksi, fled the country in the first week of January this year, weeks before the scam surfaced in Brady House branch of PNB in Mumbai. Nirav Modi has been located in the United Kingdom while Choksi is in Antigua where he has taken citizenship, sources said. The scam pertains to the alleged issuance of fraudulent Letters of Undertaking of more than $2 billion to companies of Nirav Modi and Choksi by Punjab National Bank’s Brady House branch during 2011-17, sources said.

In a related development, Interpol has issued a RCN against Purvi Modi, a Belgian national and absconding billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi’s sister, in connection with the money laundering case of the PNB scam. The notice, which acts as an international arrest warrant, states that Purvi Deepak Modi, 44, is required on charges of money laundering. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), the central agency probing the case along with the CBI, has charged Purvi Modi with playing “a major role in laundering the proceeds of crime generated from the PNB scam and being a beneficiary of the scam to the tune of over Rs 950 crore”.

“She is also the owner/director of several shell or investment companies formed solely for the purpose to launder the proceeds of crime in companies located in the UAE, British Virgin Islands and Singapore,” the agency said in its probe report. The ED wants her to join investigations to take the probe in the case forward and  had sought a global warrant against her as she did not comply with summons issued in this context, sources in the ED said. The agency named her in the first chargesheet filed in the case before a Mumbai court in May and charged her with laundering the alleged proceeds of crime generated by defrauding the Brady House branch of the PNB.