CBI to seek Red Corner Notices against Nirav, Choksi

The CBI will soon approach Interpol for the issuance of Red Corner Notices against diamontaires Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, who are wanted in India in connection with the over Rs 13,000 crore Punjab National Bank scam.

The move is being mooted days after the agency filed two charge-sheets in a Mumbai court against Nirav and his uncle Choksi among others for purportedly cheating through fraudulent issuance of Letters of Undertakings (LoUs) and Foreign Letters of Credit (FLCs).

Modi, his wife Ami (a US citizen), brother Nishal and Choksi, Gitanjali group's promoter, had fled the country in the first week of January, days before the bank approached the CBI.

Officials said the agency is preparing ground work for approaching the Interpol for a Red Corner Notice to bring them back for facing trial in one of the biggest bank scam cases the country has witnessed.

Soon after a case was registered on January 30, the CBI had issued a diffusion notice with the Interpol to track Modi and Choksi but their whereabouts remain unknown. A diffusion notice is less formal than a notice but is also used to request the arrest or location of an individual or to obtain additional information in relation to a police investigation.

Red Corner Notice will allow enforcement agencies of the member countries of Interpol to try to find and arrest them in their respective countries.

According to the charge-sheet filed last week, Nirav used his companies to purportedly siphon off funds to the tune of Rs 6,498.20 crore using fraudulent LoUs issued from PNB's Brady House branch in Mumbai. Choksi is claimed to have swindled Rs 7080.86 crore.

Besides Nirav and Choksi, who are separately charge-sheeted, others who figure in the list include Allahabad Bank Managing Director and CEO Usha Ananthasubramanian, a former CEO of PNB; Executive Directors of PNB - K V Brahmaji Rao and Sanjeev Saran and General Manager Nehal Ahad among others.