Travel documents of Nirav Modi, Choksi suspended

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 16

Passport authorities on Friday suspended the travel documents of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choski with immediate effect.

Both were given a week to respond as to why their passports should not be impounded or revoked failing which the Ministry of External Affairs would revoke the passports, the government said on Friday.

"If they fail to respond within the stipulated time it will be assumed that they have no response to offer and the MEA will go ahead with the revocation," the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

Announcing the suspension, the statement said: "On the advice of the Enforcement Directorate, the passport issuing authority in the MEA has today suspended the validity of passports of Nirav Deepak Modi and Mehul Chinubhai Choksi with immediate effect for a period of four weeks u/s 10(A) of the Passports Act 1967".

They have been asked to respond within one week why their passports should not be impounded or revoked under Section 10 (3) (c) of the Passports Act 1967, it said.

We are not aware about Nirav Modi’s location: MEA

Ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said the government did not know Modi’s whereabouts.   

"The gentleman is not in touch with any of our officers and we don't know his location," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said when asked if Nirav Modi was in touch with the ministry and if the government knew his whereabouts.

He also defended the group photo in which the Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen with businessmen, among them Nirav Modi, in Davos saying that the diamantaire was not part of the prime minister’s official delegation, and that the photograph was just an "impromptu" event.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The validity of passports of both Modi and Choksi will be for a period of four weeks from immediate effect.

The ED had on Thursday seized Nirav Modi’s assets. The Punjab National Bank had filed a complaint with the CBI against the diamond merchants for alleged Rs 11,400 crore fraud by companies run by the duo. With PTI