Nirav travelled on cancelled passport despite Interpol alert

New Delhi, June 18 

Absconding diamantaire Nirav Modi managed to travel across several countries even after information about his passport being revoked by the Indian government was flashed in the Interpol central database on February 24, the CBI said here today.

The agency said it had shared the information about revocation of his passport in the ‘diffusion’ notice issued through the Interpol on February 15.

“After the passport was revoked/cancelled by External Affairs Ministry, we had updated this information in the diffusion notice. The information that passport of Nirav Modi has been revoked was provided in the Interpol central database, available to all the member countries, on February 24,” CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said.

In its intimation to the Interpol, the CBI gave details of all five passports issued by the government to Nirav Modi. These passports are linked with each other, but their numbers changed because of renewal or the booklets becoming full. 

According to the information shared by the United Kingdom (UK), after the information was flashed in the Interpol central database, Nirav Modi travelled from Heathrow Airport in London to Hong Kong on March 15, from JFK Airport in New York to Heathrow on March 28 and from Heathrow to Charles De Gaulle, Paris on March 31, sources said.

The information was provided in response to the ‘diffusion’ notice issued by the CBI through Interpol, they said, adding once the database is updated, it is on the member countries to share information about the movements of the suspect and the agency can only request them to share it.  

The sources said no credible information about the location of Nirav Modi is available with the agency. The spokesperson said after the ‘diffusion’ notice was issued by the Interpol on the request of the CBI, the agency followed it up with the Interpol coordination agencies of six countries, where Modi was suspected to have fled. The agency requested these countries directly to share information about his whereabouts and movements.

It sent these reminders to the Interpol coordination agency of the UK on April 25, May 22, May 24 and May 28, agency sources said. Similar reminders were also sent to the agencies of the USA, Singapore, Belgium, UAE and France, they said. — PTI